Arrivals from south Asia and the Middle East are making up more than half of returned overseas travellers who test positive for COVID-19 in Sydney’s hotel quarantine system,as vaccination rates see fewer passengers from the US and UK test positive.
Twenty-two people who travelled from India tested positive to COVID-19 in the four weeks from March 7 to April 3,more than any other country and a quarter of the state’s overseas acquired cases.
In the same period,seven cases were recorded in people who travelled from Pakistan and five in arrivals from Bangladesh,according to NSW Health’s weekly COVID-19 surveillance report. Recent arrivals from Lebanon were the second-largest group,with 14 cases.
India is in the grips of a steep wave of COVID-19 infection. On March 1,the country was recording 12,000 cases a day. By last Sunday,daily cases had reached 150,000.
New Zealand has implemented a temporary ban on arrivals from India from Monday until April 28 after an unvaccinated quarantine worker tested positive in Auckland last week.
The ban was announced in light of rising cases in its hotel quarantine system,driven by people who had travelled from India.
In contrast,NSW’s Special Health Accommodation,which houses people who test positive to COVID-19 or have other health needs during their 14 days of mandatory quarantine,is dealing with declining numbers of overseas acquired cases after infection rates hit their peak over the summer.
Eighty-nine returned overseas travellers tested positive between March 7 and April 3,just over half the 163 overseas cases which were detected between December 6 and January 2.