Victoria announced no new COVID-19 cases on Saturday as all 17 household and social primary close contacts of the hotel quarantine worker infected with the mutant UK variant returned negative tests.
A Victorian hotel quarantine worker was confirmed on Wednesday to have tested positive to COVID-19, prompting the state government to reintroduce masks indoors and reduce the size of private gatherings.
Restrictions are back in Victoria after a hotel quarantine worker who was part of the tennis program in Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19. In a late night press conference on Wednesday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the return of mask mandates and restrictions on gatherings. He said the infected worker was a 26-year-old man from Melbourne s Noble Park who was a resident support officer for the Australian Open quarantine program. He last worked at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on January 29 and returned a negative test after his shift. He subsequently developed symptoms and returned a positive test for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 away from intensive care settings is greater than previously believed, a study revealed as questions swirl over aerosols in Australia. The UK study found that coughing released up to 10 times more concentrated aerosols emissions than the mean concentration from speaking or breathing. Cough remains a significant aerosol risk, warned the study from the University of Bristol, which has not yet been peer reviewed. It said that cough appears to generate significant aerosols in a size range compatible with airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 , meaning the risk of aerosols was likely to be high anywhere that someone with COVID-19 was coughing.