Two international travellers arrived in Sydney and caught immediate flight to Melbourne, prompting public health respons

Two international travellers are now in mandatory quarantine in Victoria after arriving in Sydney and boarding a domestic flight to Melbourne without quarantining in NSW.

Key points:

The two travellers are currently in quarantine in Victoria
Anyone who was on the flight or in the Melbourne terminal at the time is encouraged to isolate
The DHHS maintains Melbourne Airport is not a risk to the public
The breach has resulted in a public health investigation, with contact tracing efforts underway.

The ABC understands the two travellers have tested negative for COVID-19 and are both feeling well. The travellers boarded Virgin Airways flight VA 838 from Sydney to Melbourne, departing Sydney at 12:00pm and arriving in Melbourne at 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon.

Anyone who was on that flight should immediately quarantine at home and contact the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for further instructions.

Anyone who was at the Melbourne Airport Domestic Terminal 3 on Saturday afternoon is advised to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and to seek testing if symptoms develop.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said 130 people were on the domestic flight.

“Upon being informed these guests had travelled on our aircraft without entering hotel quarantine, we removed the aircraft from service to perform a deep clean, as a precautionary measure,” she said.

“We have passed on the passenger manifest to the relevant health authorities to assist them in contacting the passengers on the flight, and we have been in contact with the crew operating the flight.”

The two passengers did not enter Australia on a Virgin flight, the spokeswoman said.

The DHHS maintains that Melbourne Airport is not a current risk to the public.

The ABC understands all of the travellers’ boarding passes, including for the domestic flight between Sydney and Melbourne, were issued in Germany.

It remains unclear how the passengers managed to get from Sydney Airport’s international terminal to the domestic terminal.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the department was managing a “full and immediate public health response … including testing and contact tracing”. We’ve been made aware of an incident at Sydney Airport in which two international travellers from the same family were allowed to board a domestic flight to Melbourne without going through the mandatory quarantine process in New South Wales,” Mr Foley said.

“The travellers were stopped at Melbourne Airport and will now spend their two in weeks in quarantine here.

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“I’ve spoken to [NSW Health] Minister [Brad] Hazzard to seek an explanation as to how it was that the security arrangements at Sydney Airport saw the two passengers avoid their hotel quarantine obligations in Sydney and travel to Melbourne.

“He has assured me a full investigation will be completed so it cannot occur again.”

A spokeswoman said NSW Police was also aware of the matter and was conducting further inquiries.

Victoria reported zero new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, for the 36th day running.

It was expected that Premier Daniel Andrews would announce a further easing of restrictions in hospitality venues on Sunday, however it is yet to be seen whether Saturday’s developments will have any impact.

In a further easing of restrictions, Victoria will begin accepting international flights to Melbourne Airport from Monday as a revamped hotel quarantine program gets underway. The Victorian Government expects 172 ADF personnel on duty to temperature-check staff and help manage the entry and exit of travellers to the hotels.

In NSW, there were also zero new locally-acquired cases reported on Saturday, with two new cases detected in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.

It’s the second day without a new case in the community after a quarantine hotel worker unknowingly caught public transport while infected. ABC