Western Australia’s Covid backpacker outbreak from Perth Mess Hall dance party grows to 14
Western Australia ‘backpacker outbreak’ Covid tally hits FOURTEEN as another case is reported – but there’s a desperate search underway for missing backpackers who may be ‘AVOIDING testing’
- Western Australia’s backpacker cluster from Perth dance party has grown to 14
- A new case from that outbreak was a close contact of another recent infection
- WA from New Year’s Eve deeming Queensland, South Australia as ‘extreme risk’
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Western Australia has detected one new local Covid case linked to an infected French backpacker who travelled from Queensland.
The new case is a close contact of another recent infection and is in hotel quarantine, WA Health said on Friday.
The latest diagnosis takes the total number cases linked to the so-called ‘backpacker outbreak’ to 14, and includes the original, unvaccinated 25-year-old French tourist.
Many of the cases went to a busy Perth Mess Hall dance party with about 400 other people on December 19, many of them travellers.
Many of the cases went to a busy Perth Mess Hall dance party with about 400 other people on December 19, many from the traveller community
More than 700 close contacts have been identified with 24 yet to be tested as police struggle to track down some backpackers who are thought to have left WA or are avoiding testing.
Four infections among returned travellers have also been reported and they are also quarantined.
Premier Mark McGowan on Thursday announced that the new national definitions for close contacts, and recommendations for isolation periods and testing would not be applied until WA opened its borders on February 5.
WA has also again tightened border rules for travellers from Queensland and South Australia due to growing cases in both states.
As of New Year’s Eve, from 6pm local time, visitors from those states will be deemed ‘extreme risk’, along with New South Wales and Victoria.
Travellers will not be permitted into WA except for Commonwealth and state officials, members of parliament, diplomats, and people who perform specialist roles.
A Belgian backpacker was this week arrested for allegedly fleeing hotel quarantine after he was deemed a close contact of that unvaccinated French tourist. He had been staying at the now-deserted Old Fire Station Backpackers (pictured) in Fremantle, where nearly 100 people were recently evacuated and told to isolate
WA has also again tightened border rules for travellers from Queensland and South Australia due to growing cases in both states. As of New Year’s Eve, from 6pm local time, visitors from those states will be deemed ‘extreme risk’, along with New South Wales and Victoria
A Belgian backpacker was this week arrested for allegedly fleeing hotel quarantine after he was deemed a close contact of that unvaccinated French tourist.
Zacharie Ghamri, 25, was taken to a hotel in Perth’s city centre on Friday after he was informed by the WA Health Department he had been exposed to Covid-19.
He had been staying at the now-deserted Old Fire Station Backpackers in Fremantle, where nearly 100 people were recently evacuated and told to isolate.
