A male diplomat in his 50s who returned to Australia from overseas on Sunday 25 April is the ACT’s newest case of COVID-19, the ACT Government advised today.
In a media statement, the ACT Government said the man flew into Sydney International Airport and travelled to Canberra by private vehicle on the same day. He did not stop en route to the ACT and has been in home quarantine since his return.
While in quarantine, the diplomat experienced mild symptoms and was tested for COVID-19, returning a positive result. The individual has followed all quarantine measures for returning overseas travellers and is being supported by ACT Health.
ACT Health is in communication with NSW regarding this positive case to assist them for contact tracing purposes.
The ACT Government advises this positive case will be counted in ACT Health’s statistics reporting tomorrow and genome sequencing is being undertaken to determine if he is infected with a variant of concern.
At this time, ACT Health has identified three close contacts of the diplomat through contact tracing, in accordance with National Guidelines. All close contacts are also in quarantine and are following the instructions of the ACT’s public health officers. There is no risk to the public, ACT Health advises.
The ACT Government stated: “The ACT receives returning diplomats and government officials on a regular basis and given the COVID-19 situation internationally, it is not uncommon for there to be some reports of positive COVID-19 cases in the ACT’s quarantine system. This is exactly why the ACT has a quarantine system. The circumstances of this new case demonstrates that our quarantine system here in the ACT is working well to protect the Canberra community from COVID-19.”
