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Canberra Today 21°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Woman returns a ‘weak’ positive result for covid

A WOMAN returning to Canberra on a government-facilitated flight has received a “weak positive” result for COVID-19 yesterday (February 21). 

The woman, aged in her thirties, had completed her hotel quarantine when a mandatory end-of-quarantine test came back with a weak positive result.

The woman had COVID-19 in December while overseas and once she recovered was given the all clear to fly to Australia, according to an ACT Health official.

She returned a negative COVID-19 test before departing and again on day one of hotel quarantine.

“The weak positive test result from yesterday is almost certainly due to her known previous overseas-acquired infection, and reflects prolonged shedding of virus fragments. This is known to happen intermittently for up to several months after a person is no longer infectious,” the official said. 

“We are confident the individual is not infectious and not a risk to the community. There is no risk to hotel and government staff from this recovered case. As a precaution, however, further tests will be done today before the individual is released from hotel quarantine.

“As this case has been previously reported and managed as a case overseas, it will not be formally counted in the ACT or Australia’s total infection numbers.” 

The woman remains in hotel quarantine and is being supported by ACT Health.

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Ian Meikle, editor

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