Originally Posted by
SOPS
I think when the politicians saw what happened OS. The ‘ curve getting flat’ was still killing a lot of people. Now, for Australia, its eradication at all costs.
So stop letting it leak out of hotel quarantine. Nobody cares who is responsible as long as its done properly and is tighter than a fish’s rrrrs. McGowan has done a bit of deflecting - ultimately it was and is a State responsibility accepted and done poorly. First the leak with the security guard now this one. I agree with him re travel overseas with a good reason only, but the buck still stops with WA Health. The numbers accepted into hotel quarantine from overseas arrivals is not why the virus leaked.
Mercure cluster timeline
- January 31 – Perth goes into a five-day lockdown because of case 903 where a security guard at the Four Points Sheraton tests positive to COVID-19.
- February 4 – Professor Tarun Weeramanthri provides initial advice and calls for an immediate independent expert review of airflow and ventilation in all WA quarantine hotels.
- February 24 – Independent reviewers, Glossop Consultancy, recommend to the government that the Four Points be retained until it could be replaced by the Adnate Hotel in the quarantine system.
- March 10 – Initial ventilation review completed.
- March 31 – Final ventilation report provided to WA Health.
- April 3 – A 54-year-old Victorian man arrives in Perth from China and starts hotel quarantine at the Mecure Hotel.
- April 8 – Summary reports on hotel ventilation provided to Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson which states the Mercure is the most at-risk hotel and the Four Points and Novotel Langley are also high risk.
- April 10 – an Australian man returns from India and starts quarantining at the Mercure with his new wife after going overseas for his own wedding.
- April 13 – The man who came back from India tests positive to the virus.
- April 15 – The wife of the man who came back from India tests positive.
- April 16 – Premier Mark McGowan and Health Minister Roger Cook receive advice from the CHO on ventilation saying risks at the three high-risk hotels could be mitigated by closing them or bringing in other measures. Dr Robertson suggests transitioning the Mercure to taking low-risk international arrivals such as seasonal workers from countries with no COVID-19. A nurse and her daughter, staying at the Mercure since April 3 after returning from the United Kingdom, in quarantine in a room across from the couple who came back from India test positive to the virus.
- April 17 – The Victorian man, who was in an immediate adjacent room to the positive cases, is let out of quarantine after testing negative for the virus and not showing any symptoms. He is a tourist in Perth and visits several cafes, restaurants and sightseeing locations, while staying at St Catherine’s on Park in Crawley.
- April 21 – Genomic sequencing reveals the UK family cases are linked to the returned couple from India who are in a neighbouring room and tested positive for the virus a few days after going into quarantine on April 10. The government tells 16 other people who were staying on the same floor to self-isolate until they return a negative test. Two other people who were guests in adjacent rooms to the positive cases told to isolate for two weeks. Victorian man flies home to Melbourne on QF-778 but is immediately told to go into isolation by health authorities.
- April 23 – The Victorian man returns a positive test for COVID-19 as does a woman from Kardinya he stayed with on April 17. Mr McGowan announces a three-day lockdown from midnight.
- April 24 – A West Australian man in his 40s becomes the second community case in connection to the Victorian man after dining at the same restaurant on April 18.
- April 25 – No new cases of COVID-19 are recorded in WA in the community.
- April 26 – Mr McGowan announces Perth will come out of lockdown at 12.01am on Tuesday but there will be four days of interim restrictions before the government reassesses the situation.