Page 571 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 March 2021
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Testing remains an important part of our pandemic response as a community, and I am pleased to report that testing numbers in the ACT continue to be strong, recently surpassing 184,000 negative tests. We continue to encourage anyone experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, to present for testing at one of the many sites located across the ACT. It is vital that testing numbers remain high as we enjoy eased restrictions across our community. We also acknowledge that sometimes there are longer waits when we see a surge in demand for testing, as we have over the last couple of days, and we thank people for their patience when that is the case.
The ACT is continuing to support efforts to repatriate Australian citizens and permanent residents from overseas. In my last update to the Assembly, I informed members of the flight that landed in Canberra from Chennai, India, on 8 February 2021. I am pleased to report that all the individuals who were quarantining were well supported throughout their quarantine period and were released on 23 February after they received their exit tests. One person returned a weak positive test result, which was determined to be a low positive historical case after further testing was conducted. As this person presented no risk to the community, they were also released from quarantine and this was not recorded as an official ACT positive case.
More recently, the ACT received our fifth government-facilitated flight from Singapore, on 1 March 2021. ACT Health, ACT Policing and Australian Defence Force personnel supported 146 passengers and two family members with formal approval to join their loved ones to enter hotel quarantine. A total of five positive cases of COVID-19 were recorded in quarantining guests from this flight. These cases were investigated by ACT Health and it was determined that they most likely contracted the virus during their transit, as the Australian government requires all travellers to return a negative COVID-19 test before flying to Australia.
The individuals were moved into the medi-wing within the hotel to further minimise the risk of virus transmission to other quarantining guests, and they continued to be monitored and supported during their quarantining period. I am pleased to report that, despite these active cases, this operation ran smoothly and 138 quarantining travellers and the two family members were released on 16 March 2021 after all returning a negative result on their exit tests.
The five positive cases and three close contacts remained in hotel quarantine after 15 March, with the length of their extended quarantine period considered in line with national guidelines. The three close contacts of the positive cases returned negative COVID-19 test results on 21 March and were released from hotel quarantine the following day, on 22 March. As I have already noted, all five positive cases from this flight have now recovered and have also been released from hotel quarantine.
To date, the ACT has supported the repatriation of 936 Australian citizens and permanent residents seeking to return home. Our enhanced Safeguarding Canberrans surveillance program minimises the risk of these flights to our community and our hotel quarantine workers with the introduction of daily saliva tests when staff are working, daily symptom checks and weekly PCR testing of our entire hotel quarantine workforce.
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