Coronavirus WA: South West town of Collie urged to stay calm after revelations COVID-positive man visited pub

The South West town of Collie has been urged to stay calm after it was revealed a COVID-positive man had mingled at the local pub before being told to head back into isolation. The man in his 30s was a returned traveller from Poland who had completed 14 days quarantine in a hotel in Melbourne. He tested negative throughout his quarantine stint and returned to Collie, where he was made to undergo further testing as part of a Victorian follow-up requirement. The man then returned a “very weak” COVID-positive result, despite no indication of the virus in earlier results. He had been moving freely throughout the coalmining town and was even spotted at the Collie pub on Saturday evening. The man and three of his close contacts have been made to isolate while they await further testing. Despite the bizarre case sending shock waves through the South West, Premier Mark McGowan deemed the incident “low risk”. He said authorities believed it was an “historic” case which “is sometimes seen in people who have recovered from an infection previously”. He said the community would be updated if results indicated the man was indeed “infectious”. Health Minister Roger Cook confirmed the man would be tested again to determine if his was a positive case or an historic case. He said there was a “strong suspicion” the man was an historic case who was “shedding” the disease. Final test results, including antibody tests, are expected tomorrow. Collie Shire president Sarah Stanley told The West Australian she had headed into isolation after coming across the man in the Collie pub. She said her husband, who is a power station operator, had also chosen to isolate. She said the infected man had been “pretty proactive” and had contacted all the people he had come across. “These people have started to take their own steps ahead of the health advice,” she said. Ms Stanley said she had “always been worried” about a potential COVID outbreak occurring in Collie due to the nature of the local industry and people “coming and going” for work. She urged the panicked community to “keep calm” and encouraged those who had been in contact with the man to get tested. WA Health director of communicable disease control Paul Armstrong said the man did not pose a risk to public health. “Business should be as normal, there’s no need to deep clean,” he said. “Our feeling at the moment is that this is is highly unlikely to be a true case.” Mr McGowan also confirmed there were three COVID-positive people in Royal Perth Hospital. The Health Department said they were returned travellers who were all in a stable condition. The State’s current total stands at 26 active cases. It comes after a security guard at the Pan Pacific contracted the virus from a returned traveller and spread it to two of his housemates — who were food delivery drivers. Dozens of food outlets across Perth were this week listed as exposure sites. There were 79 close contacts of whom 49 had returned negative results and a further 429 casual contacts — 134 of whom had so far tested negative. Restrictions have been tightened across Perth and Peel, with Mr McGowan confirming Perth Glory would play their A-League match against Melbourne City FC tonight without a crowd.