{"id":112144,"date":"2021-02-10T21:43:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T21:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=112144"},"modified":"2021-02-10T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T21:43:10","slug":"australias-victoria-state-considers-n95-masks-for-quarantine-hotels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/australias-victoria-state-considers-n95-masks-for-quarantine-hotels\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia's Victoria state considers N95 masks for quarantine hotels"},"content":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian state of Victoria is considering making N95 masks mandatory for quarantine hotels and will also ban nebuliser machines for inhaling medication at them, after a cluster of three cases was linked to a hotel.<\/p> The first case linked to an infected traveller in quarantine at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport was a hotel worker with two more cases reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The hotel has been shut until further notice for cleaning and contact tracing.<\/p>\n Victoria state chief health officer Brett Sutton said the working hypothesis was the new cases came from \u201can exposure event that involved a medical device called a nebuliser and it vaporises medication or liquid into a fine mist\u201d.<\/p>\n The mist can remain suspended in the air for several minutes, Sutton said.<\/p>\n Sutton said the returning citizen, who is in intensive care, had used the nebuliser and inadvertently passed on the disease to three other people, including another hotel guest.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s premier, Daniel Andrews, said nebulisers must be kept out of hotel quarantine rooms while quarantine commissioner, Emma Cassar, said a requirement for N95 masks, which offer greater protection than ordinary surgical masks, in quarantine hotels was being considered.<\/p>\n Australia has been among the world\u2019s most successful countries in handling the novel coronavirus, largely because of decisive lockdowns and borders sealed to all but a trickle of travellers, with some 22,000 cases and 909 deaths.<\/p>\n But its quarantine hotels, where all international arrivals have to spend two weeks, have proved to be a weak link in its defences with the cluster in Melbourne the latest to emerge from one.<\/p>\n Neighbouring New South Wales, which recorded no locally acquired cases on Wednesday, relaxed rules around mandatory mask wearing on Wednesday while raising the limit on public gatherings.<\/p>\n Other states also maintained their runs of no local cases.<\/p>\n (Graphic: Global COVID tracker – here)<\/p>\n