Western Australia has detected one new local COVID-19 case as an infected quarantine worker at Perth’s Hyatt Hotel spreads the virus.

January 6, 2022

Western Australia has detected one new local COVID-19 case as an infected quarantine hotel worker spreads the virus.

The new case is a household contact of the Perth Hyatt Hotel security guard who tested positive a day ago, WA Health said in a statement on Thursday.

Authorities are working to determine the guard’s genomic sequencing and investigations remain under way into how he became infected.

Meanwhile, tests have revealed that a Pan Pacific security guard infected with the Omicron variant contracted the virus from two overseas travellers who were staying at the quarantine hotel.

Investigators believe there was no other transmission at the hotel.

Both guards tested positive during a routine testing.

No new cases were linked to the Delta backpacker cluster and the outbreak remains at 21 infections after the unvaccinated 25-year-old male index case travelled from Queensland in early December.

Six cases were also detected among interstate travellers.

Two are people from Victoria, with one each from Queensland, NSW, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

A further two infections were reported among members of international flight crews.

All new interstate and overseas cases are in isolation.

The nine new infections bring WA’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 1215.

WA Health has identified 856 close contacts associated with the backpacker cluster, with 802 testing negative and 30 yet to be tested.

There are now 74 active confirmed COVID-19 cases in WA and 1133 people have recovered from the virus.