Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said late Wednesday that a 26-year-old volunteer firefighter who worked as a resident support officer as part of the tournament tested positive for the virus. Until then, the state had not seen a local transmission of the virus in 28 days.
New restrictions have now been imposed on the state’s 6.7 million residents. Masks are mandatory in indoor public areas and new limits apply to the number of people who can gather in a household.
Andrews said the new rules were put in place “because of an abundance of caution” and because of the possibility that the case could have been caused by a new strain of the coronavirus – although he said the genomic sequencing was needed to determine whether it was . the case is not finished yet.
The unnamed man last worked at the Grand Hyatt hotel on Jan. 29 and tested negative for the virus at the end of his shift that day. However, he subsequently developed symptoms and tested positive on Wednesday.
As a result, Andrews said that 500 to 600 people staying at the hotel are considered “close contacts” and will have to isolate until they return a negative test.
He said the situation should not affect the Australian Open itself, which begins Monday. Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said on Thursday that of the 507 people tested, 160 of them were players.
Tiley said testing should be completed by 5:00 pm local time Thursday, saying the players are “casual contacts” and that one of them is unlikely to test positive.
The draw for the Australian Open has been postponed by one day to Friday while the tests take place.
All matches at the Melbourne Park tennis center for Thursday have been suspended for the players and staff to test. The Tennis Australia boss said the warm-up matches involved would be rescheduled if time permits. “Everything will remain as it is, only with a day delay, until further notice,” Tiley said.
The run-up to the tournament was formed by the fear of the corona virus. Upon arrival in Victoria, 72 players were quarantined for 14 days prior to their Grand Slam matches after passengers tested positive for Covid-19 on their flights.
CNN’s Aleks Klosok and Hillary Whiteman contributed to the reporting.