The shipping container terminal is seen at Port Botany in Sydney. - AAP
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More than 10 of the 15 Sydney dock workers who boarded a ship found to have COVID-positive crew have tested negative for the virus.
The Inge Kosan, an LPG tanker, was docked in Port Botany for a day from March 31 after arriving from the Papua New Guinea capital of Port Moresby.
It then sailed for Vanuatu on April 1. Health authorities in Vanuatu have confirmed that 12 out of 13 crew members from the ship, including (a) deceased crew member, tested positive for COVID following testing in Port Vila, NSW Health said in a statement on Friday.
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When Australians returning from overseas are released from hotel quarantine, many engage in a whirlwind of reunions with loved ones and other social activities, as they rediscover the relative freedoms life without community transmission affords.
People who were housed at the Mercure on George Street have been ordered back into isolation.
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It is the second instance of possible COVID-19 transmission within a Sydney quarantine hotel to be reported within a week, after a suspected transmission between two people staying in adjoining rooms at the Adina hotel prompted a similar health response.
Brooke Thompson received a call on Wednesday night that she and her partner would need to re-enter self-isolation, after they were released from their fortnight stay on level 10 of the Mercure on Sunday morning.
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NSW health authorities are urgently trying to track four people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 after three returned travellers at a Sydney quarantine hotel contracted the same South African strain of the virus.
It comes as Western Australia also reports two COVID-19 infections contracted in hotel quarantine.
On Wednesday night NSW Health said two of three people diagnosed with the virus were family members who had stayed in connecting rooms on the 10th floor of the Mercure Hotel in Sydney earlier this month, while the third person was staying in another adjacent room.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said on Thursday up to 40 returned travellers and an unknown number of staff may have been exposed to the virus and health authorities were still working to track down at least four people.
India reported over 314,000 new infections in a single day. Ecuador and Turkey have introduced tougher rules to curb infections. Follow DW for the latest.