Victoria Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday evening that a 26-year-old volunteer firefighter who had been working as a resident support officer at the tournament tested positive for the virus. Until then, the state had not seen local transmission of the virus in 28 days.
New restrictions have now been imposed on the state’s 6.7 million people. Masks are mandatory in covered public places and new limits have been set on the number of people who can gather in a home.
Andrews said the new rules were being set “very carefully” and because of the possibility that the case could have been caused by a new strain of coronavirus, although he said the genomic sequencing needed to determine if the case it’s not over yet.
The unnamed man last worked at the Grand Hyatt hotel on Jan. 29 and tested negative for the virus at the end of his shift that day. However, he later developed symptoms and tested positive on Wednesday.
As a result, Andrews said between 500 and 600 people staying at the hotel have been considered “close contacts” and will have to isolate themselves until they return a negative test.
He said the situation should not affect the Australian Open itself, which will start on Monday. Speaking on Thursday, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said of the 507 people being tested, 160 were players.
Tiley said the tests should be finished before 5pm local time on Thursday, and said the players are “casual contacts” and there is a low chance any of them will test positive.
The Australian Open draw has been postponed one day to Friday while testing takes place.
All games at the Melbourne Park Tennis Center scheduled for Thursday have been suspended to allow testing of players and staff. The head of Tennis Australia said the affected warm-up matches would be rescheduled, weather permitting. “Everything stays as it is, just a day late, until further notice,” Tiley said.
The race to the tournament has been shaped by fears of the coronavirus. Arriving in Victoria, 72 players spent a fortnight of 14 days before their Grand Slam matches after the passengers on their flights tested positive for Covid-19.
CNN’s Aleks Klosok and Hillary Whiteman contributed to the information.