Isolation hotels could spread virus, says expert

HOTEL quarantining could become a Petri dish for the spread of Covid-19 if we don’t learn from the mistakes of Australia and New Zealand, an expert has warned,

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said he is confident Ireland will start hotel quarantining for travellers from designated highrisk countries this week.

However, details of the hotel provider have yet to be confirmed.

Professor John Wenger, a professor of physical chemistry at University College Cork (UCC) and joint founder of the Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said an engineer will be required to ensure the hotel’s ventilation system doesn’t spread Covid-19 from room to room through air ducts.

In February, Melbourne entered a five-day lockdown after 19 cases connected to a single hotel quarantine case emerged.

A recent study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also connected cases in New Zealand to spread within quarantine hotels through aerosol transmission.

Prof. Wenger said there was an instance where it’s understood the virus spread from one open hotel room door to another, infecting an adult and a child in 50 seconds. The study concluded that the enclosed and unventilated space in the hotel corridor probably facilitated the event.’

Prof. Wenger said: ‘We need an engineer to go into the hotels that are selected to make sure that the air flows are appropriate to minimise the risk of airborne transmission.

‘It will be highly embarrassing to have the same mistakes happen here when it’s been all over the news in Australia,’ he said.