Such is the mystery surrounding the outbreak that the state’s chief health officer has speculated that finding ‘Patient Zero’ could be a “challenge beyond us”.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said a specialist team was tracking the source. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De MarchiGenomic sequencing suggests the strain circulating in the community is of US origin might have come into the country via an infectious returned traveller who landed in Sydney on December 1.
Dr Chant said the returned traveller, a woman, was infectious on the plane and stayed in hotel quarantine upon her arrival. A long line of people waiting to get tested for COVID-19 at a pop up testing clinic in Avalon. Picture: Tim Hunter.“We are being as thorough as we can. We probably have … at any one time, 10 or 20 lines of inquiry and we pursue them all concurrently.