The hotel confirmed that its night manager at Rydges on Swanston came down with a fever on May 25 and returned a positive coronavirus test on May 26 before going into isolation two days after his last shift.
The emails reveal that security guards,health workers and hotel staff who had been in the vicinity of the night manager on his last shift were immediately stood down upon his reporting a fever.
Five of the seven security guards later returned positive tests for coronavirus and the Rydges outbreak has been nominated by top Victorian health officials as the source for Melbourne’s second wave of COVID-19.
There is no suggestion the night manager had engaged in any improper activity in contracting the virus. It has been presumed that returning travellers undergoing quarantine at Rydges were the most likely source for the outbreak at the hotel.
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The Rydges spokesman said the hotel company was cooperating with the Victorian board of inquiry into hotel quarantine and looked forward to getting clarity on the source of infection that triggered the state’s second wave of COVID-19.
The inquiry headed by former state coroner Jennifer Coate begins hearing evidence next week.