Did SARS-CoV-2 spread through a Brisbane hotel’s air conditioning?
Health authorities are puzzled by new infections in a quarantine hotel
The concerning B117 strain of COVID-19 might have spread through the air-conditioning of a now-closed Brisbane quarantine hotel, infecting returned travellers, Queensland authorities have suggested.
Four people quarantining on level seven of the Hotel Grand Chancellor in the CBD have been diagnosed with the same highly-contagious strain of the virus.
As a result, more than 120 people quarantining at the hotel have been ordered into an extra 14 days of quarantine at a different hotel.
State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is now suggesting quarantining returned travellers in mining camps in outback Queensland, saying the transmissibility of the strain that was first identified in the UK is “something we’ve never had to deal with before”.
