Another Victorian hotel quarantine failure

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Genomic sequencing has confirmed that the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 in west Melbourne has been traced to a returned traveller who arrived from Sri Lanka on 8 May and tested positive for the virus on the same day.

The man in his 40s was released from the Novotel Ibis quarantine hotel on 23 May, and health authorities are trying to determine how the virus was passed onto the west Melbourne family of four who subsequently holidayed in New South Wales.

The outbreak, known as the West Melbourne cluster, now has at least 14 confirmed cases linked to it.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.