Health
by Angie Raphael
21st Apr 2021 6:11 PM
Health authorities are scrambling to trace the possible transmission of the South African strain of COVID-19 after three returned travellers who stayed at a Sydney hotel became infected.
Genomic testing shows they each share the same viral sequence for the B1.351 variant.
The travellers entered Australia on April 3 on the same flight and stayed in adjacent rooms at the Mercure Hotel on George Street in Sydney's CBD.
The Mercure Hotel on George Street.
"All three people, two of whom are members of the same family, tested negative on their day-two swabs in hotel quarantine, before subsequently testing positive for COVID-19 later during their quarantine periods," NSW Health said in a statement on Wednesday.