Refugees at the Park Hotel in Melbourne have begun getting calls notifying them of their test results from Covid swabs taken on Sunday night.
At least another six refugees have been told they are covid positive this afternoon, taking the total figure to nine confirmed cases.
It is feared there could be up to 20 confirmed cases as more refugees are informed of their results. No explanation has been given for the slowness of the test results.
“The full disaster of the Covid outbreak is slowly being revealed as the results trickle out. The responsibility for every Covid case at the Park hotel lies with the Australian government. They wrongly detained the refugees. They created the high risk conditions in the hotel, and then did nothing to protect people even when they warned of the dangers,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
The confirmed positive cases are being moved to level 1 of the Park hotel. One of the cases confirmed on Sunday has been taken to hospital this afternoon.
