• Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today confirmed new measures aimed at controlling the coronavirus outbreak linked to Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn quarantine hotel.
• Anyone who visited the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn coronavirus quarantine hotel for more than 15 minutes between January 27 and February 9 must seek coronavirus testing and self-isolate for 14 days.
• Returned travellers have been moved, while staff have been stood down and ordered to self-isolate and seek testing.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Anyone who spent more than fifteen minutes at Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn between January 27 and February 9 must seek coronavirus testing and self-isolate for 14 days, as state health authorities rush to combat what Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews labelled a “hyper-infectious” outbreak linked to the quarantine hotel.

Three locally-acquired cases of coronavirus have emerged from the Holiday Inn in the past week.

Victorian health officials revealed two new cases on Tuesday, comprising of a food and beverage attendant at the Holiday Inn, and a returned traveller who tested positive after finishing her 14 days of quarantine at the same hotel.

Those cases joined another hotel quarantine worker who tested positive on Sunday.

Speaking in Melbourne on Wednesday morning, Andrews confirmed guests, staff, and visitors who attended the Holiday Inn between between January 27 and February 9 are now considered primary close contacts, meaning they must enter self-isolation and get tested for the virus.

The decision was made out of “an abundance of caution,” Andrews said, calling it “the right thing to do, and that is based on the very best of public health advice.”

Andrews said the Holiday Inn will be closed for a “terminal” deep clean. Returned travellers will be transferred to the Pullman Hotel instead.

Travellers who are currently in hotel quarantine at the Holiday Inn will have their mandatory 14-day isolation periods reset, while hotel quarantine staff who worked over that time period have been stood down.

Andrews previously confirmed one of the Holiday Inn hotel quarantine workers was infected with UK variant of COVID-19, which experts fear is more virulent than earlier strains.

The Premier today said the public health response was battling a “wicked enemy made more challenging by the fact it is changing.

“It is a moving target,” he added.

The recent outbreak, and prior coronavirus scares at other facilities, have renewed fears of viral transmission within hotel quarantine.

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee yesterday revealed it will conduct a new review of hotel quarantine systems nationwide.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton welcomed the ‘end-to-end’ review, saying the state “looks forward to participating” in the fresh investigation.

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