Covid scare in Perth as returned overseas traveller allowed out of hotel quarantine tests POSITIVE to the virus after visiting a string of stores
- Returned overseas traveller tests positive to virus after leaving hotel quarantine
- Man left Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel on Friday but tested positive on Saturday
- He was placed back into quarantine after visiting several stores and a restaurant
- Health authorities say the man is shedding viral particles and is not infectious
A returned overseas traveller has tested positive to coronavirus after leaving hotel quarantine in Perth but authorities believe he is shedding viral particles and is not infectious.
The maritime worker has been placed back into quarantine after returning a ‘moderately positive’ PCR test on Saturday morning, WA Health said on Sunday.
He had left the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth a day earlier, having completed 14 days of quarantine.
During his time in the community, the man stayed at the Ibis hotel in Perth, ate at a restaurant and visited an Optus store on Murray Street and a pharmacy.
It is believed 12 people were in the restaurant at the time, all of which are now considered casual contacts.
Anyone who attended those venues at the same time will be contacted and encouraged to get a COVID-19 test as an additional precaution.
Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said the man had been returned to hotel quarantine purely as a precaution.
‘We do not believe he is infectious,’ Dr Robertson told reporters.
The man wore a face mask while he was out in the community and has remained asymptomatic.
He had originally tested positive on May 23, two days after arriving at the hotel from Colombia via the United States.
He is the same man – identified by WA Health as Case 1017 – who infected a guest in an adjoining room at the Pan Pacific last month.
The man staying next door had been in the hotel since May 16 and returned two negative tests before testing positive on day 13.
WA Health is yet to determine how the virus spread between the two rooms.