ACT Health officials in charge of quarantining returning Canberrans from overseas are taking no risk with public health.

Eight passengers from a repatriation flight that arrived on March 2 will remain locked away inside the Pacific Suites Hotel for longer than the practice of 14 days for quarantine.

While the other 138 travellers from Singapore were cleared to return home after all tested negative before their hotel exit on Tuesday (March 16), ACT Health have confirmed three of the residents free of the virus could be a possible risk to the Canberra community.

Five persons were found to carry COVID-19 after a young male, who was a close contact to the previous infection off the flight to Canberra, was the last to test positive for the virus.

The additional three close contracts in quarantine are said to be linked to the five cases and will require to stay behind for a further number of days.

“While the three have returned negative results, there is still a risk that they could contract covid,” a spokesperson for Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said.

“So we need to keep them in quarantine from the 14 days they came into contact with a known case.”

ACT Health took the risks so seriously that all eight affected travellers were moved into a separate medi-wing, which are secluded rooms of the quarantine hotel.

Two Canberrans initially were believed to carry a weak positive test after testing negative before boarding the flight.

The next two caught the strain “either in transit or from these two individuals”, according to health officials.