Tasmania’s COVID-19 cluster linked to ‘illegal dinner party’

A cluster of COVID-19 cases in Tasmania may be linked to an illegal dinner party attended by medical workers, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has revealed. The nation’s top health official was briefing a special select committee of New Zealand MPs when he made the admission. The committee, being chaired by the NZ Opposition Leader, was set up to scrutinise the Ardern Government’s handling of the crisis. Dr Brendan Murphy said while a passenger from the embattled Ruby Princess cruise ship was likely the source of the outbreak, the illegal dinner party may have exacerbated the situation. “We thought we were doing really well in the last week and then we had a cluster of 49 cases in a hospital in Tasmania just over the weekend. Though most of them went to an illegal dinner party of medical workers,” Dr Murphy said. Four of five of Tasmania’s recorded COVID-19 deaths have been linked to the cluster in the region’s North West Coast. Image: News Corp Australia

from National | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2VoSMZb