Victorian authorities are investigating the possible transmission of COVID between residents in hotel quarantine. A government spokesperson said two separate residents on the same floor of the Park Royal in Melbourne returned genome testing results for the same UK variant. The potential transmission period is between January 20 to 28 and involves a family of five and a woman on the same floor within the quarantine hotel. During that time, a family of five including a man in his 40’s, a woman in her 40’s and three children aged one, four and seven arrived in Melbourne from Nigeria on January 20 and were placed on same floor as the woman.

“The family tested positive on January 24 following their day three swabs and were moved to a health hotel and subsequently tested positive to the coronavirus UK variant,” a government statement reads. The woman in her 60’s arrived in Melbourne from Malaysia via Singapore on January 11 and previously tested negative for the virus on her day three and 11 tests, but tested positive to the UK variant on January 28. She was moved to a health hotel and her husband has tested negative to his day three and 11 swabs, but will continue to undergo further testing as an additional precaution.