Coronavirus: South Australia on high alert after outbreak linked to quarantine hotel

The Australian state reported 14 new cases on Monday and three on Sunday, just as the country quashed a second wave that started in Melbourne

Meanwhile, South Korea reported over 200 new cases, an 11-week high, and new cases in India dropped to a four-month low

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A passenger arriving in Perth from Brisbane has his temperature checked. Australia’s hard border restrictions were eased, as a new coronavirus cluster emerged in South Australia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:33am, 16 Nov 2020Updated: 4:10pm, 16 Nov 2020

The Australian state of South Australia reported 14 new coronavirus cases on Monday, a dramatic increase from the previous day, prompting the country’s other states to tighten internal borders and amid concerns of a new virus hotspot.

South Australia ended a months-long streak of no Covid-19 infections on Sunday, reporting three locally-acquired coronavirus cases after a worker from a quarantine hotel infected family members, the authorities said.

By Monday the number in the state had jumped to 17. Officials moved quickly to contain the outbreak, ordering hundreds of people to isolate while closing linked schools and businesses.

“We just kept getting positives coming off the machine,” South Australia Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We haven’t got the genomics yet, but I’m absolutely certain it has come from a medi-hotel,” she added, using the term for quarantine hotels.

“It is a very, very dangerous situation we’re in,” state premier Steven Marshall said on Monday, urging residents to get tested if they had symptoms. “We will do whatever it takes to get on top of this cluster.”

It comes just as Australians were breathing a collective sigh of relief after squashing a second-wave outbreak in Melbourne that originated from security bungles at hotel quarantine. The city, which recorded thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths in recent months, has now gone more than two weeks without a single new case.

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