Border Force and NSW Health to investigate how two overseas travellers failed to quarantine

Health and border authorities will investigate how two international passengers were allowed to fly from Sydney to Melbourne without quarantining – an act that has forced an entire planeload of domestic passengers into quarantine.

On Saturday, two travellers, thought to be from Germany, arrived in Sydney, but failed to quarantine before flying to Melbourne.

The travellers were stopped at Melbourne airport through “some good fortune”, after an airport employee noticed something was amiss. They are now completing their quarantine in Victoria, inadvertently becoming the first occupants of Victoria’s reset hotel quarantine system.

The pair’s ability to travel freely from Sydney has prompted frustration within the Victorian state government.

Victoria’s health minister Martin Foley said he had sought an explanation from his New South Wales counterpart and had been assured there would be a “full investigation”.

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Foley praised the transfer employee at Melbourne airport who noticed something was wrong.

“That employee has done an amazing job and we are very grateful to them and hopefully they are suitably honoured by their employer and if they don’t, we certainly will,” he said.

He said initial tests of the two travellers had returned a negative result for Covid-19. The pair will be tested again tomorrow.

“However, that’s not over because what we have to do is because of the incubation period process, keep those people in quarantine, and they will be in quarantine for the next two weeks,” he said.

The federal health minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday he had directed Border Force to investigate the failing.

Hunt, though, said the pair were picked up by a “failsafe” deliberately built into the border control system.

“There are multiple rings of containment within the quarantine and border system and, ultimately, these passengers have been picked up within those rings of containment,” Hunt told Sky News on Sunday.

The case has also prompted a warning from Victoria’s health department that anyone who was on Virgin Airways flight VA 838 from Sydney at midday AEDT and arriving in Melbourne at 1.25pm on Saturday should “immediately quarantine at home and contact DHHS”.

There were 176 people on the flight, including 170 passengers and four cabin crew and two pilots. The vast majority of those have already been contacted by health authorities.

“Anyone who has been at the Melbourne airport domestic terminal on Saturday afternoon is advised to monitor for Covid-19 symptoms and to seek testing if symptoms develop,” the department said.

A further five staff who spoke with the travellers at Melbourne Airport have also been identified as close contacts. They have been told to quarantine.

Victoria has been free of locally transmitted coronavirus cases for more than a month and with no active cases has effectively eradicated the virus.

Victoria recorded its 37th consecutive day on Sunday of no new virus cases.

The state’s impressive zero-case run is about to be put to the test as international arrivals, initially capped at 160 a day, resume.

Five international flights from Colombo, Doha, Hong Kong and Singapore are scheduled to arrive at Melbourne airport on Monday, marking the start of the state’s revamped hotel quarantine program.

International flights were diverted from Victoria in June after security guards at two quarantine hotels contracted Covid-19.

The outbreaks sparked the state’s second wave, which resulted in more than 18,000 infections and 800 deaths.

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The government announced on Friday it would introduce legislation to charge for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

The fees will be set at $3,000 per adult, $1,000 for each additional adult in a room and $500 for children aged between three and 18 years. There will be no charge for children under three.

The government has said the payments put Victoria in line with other states and territories but that there will also be hardship considerations, including fee waivers, reductions and payment plan options.

There will be no security guards involved in the new-look program, with all staff employed or directly contracted by the government, with the exception of cleaning staff, who are on fixed-term contracts with Alfred Health.

Hundreds of Victoria police officers will act as security as well as undertake floor monitoring in “health hotels”, which will house those travellers who test positive to Covid-19.

Australian Defence Force personnel will support Victoria Police by helping guests on entry and exit, as well as registering staff movements and conducting temperature checks. Some ADF members have arrived at their post already, with more to come next week.