Chris Hipkins says Covid-19 transmission via isolation hotel ventilation ‘less likely’

January 26, 2021

A full investigation is ongoing at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel to discover how the Northland community case caught it.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says transmission of the latest community case via hotel ventilation while in managed isolation is the "less likely" scenario.

A full investigation is ongoing at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel to discover how the Northland community case caught it from a fellow returnee before leaving the facility.

Hipkins was asked about the hotel's ventilation system being a possible vector of transmission at today's post-Cabinet address.

“I still don’t have an update on the specifics of how it was transferred. As I set out yesterday, the two cases were in rooms that were opposite each other in the hallway," he said.

“The advice I have had so far is that ventilation, while possible, is still one of the less likely potential avenues of transmission between the two people and it’s more likely to have been via a surface or them being in the same place within a short time of one another rather than ventilation transferring it between rooms."

Dr Joel Rindelaub, a research fellow at the Auckland University’s School of Chemical Sciences, told Breakfast it's "certainly possible" for Covid-19 to travel through a hotel’s ventilation system.

Joel Rindelaub says small droplets can remain in a room for hours if there is no fresh air coming in.

“We have seen this kind of thing before, possibly,” he said. “Now we don’t want to jump to any conclusions here – we don’t have all the details – but yes, it is certainly possible.

“If you sneeze or you cough, you’re going to expel some gross droplets from your face hole, right?

“These droplets are gonna fall out. The big ones are about two metres – that’s why we have that social distancing guideline.”

Rindelaub said he was more concerned about the “little, tiny particles – the ones that are smaller than the droplets that you can’t even see, that are maybe 10 times less than the width of your hair”.

He described the droplets as “so small, they can actually just chill out in the air, go with the flow," adding that they could "maybe transfer from room to room, hang out in hallways or other social areas.

Experts say it could have been spread through the hotel’s ventilation system, but the Government is playing down the theory.

"They can be there for hours if there is not fresh air coming out."

Rindelaub said you “want to have clean, fresh air coming into your building at all times” rather than “recirculate[ing] the air,” which can lead to “high-risk situations” where infections may occur.

He said a similar situation occurred last year after two MIQ healthcare workers were infected with Covid-19 in a Christchurch hotel from what was believed to be “some kind of airborne transmission”.

He added that airborne transmission is “something that we need to be concerned about, not only with mask-wearing, but with the quality of air we’re breathing”.

Rindelaub said the chances of becoming infected with Covid-19 in MIQ facilities can be minimised by ensuring there is clean air and “possibly having a stand down time between guests”.

“We know the virus can last, at most, maybe three days, so we have enough time in between guests. The virus can just die naturally on a surface and we’re not maybe exposing our cleaners to go in to that virus.”

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