A man in Victoria has tested positive to COVID-19 after returning from overseas, despite isolating for 14 days in hotel quarantine.

According to news.com.au, the man in his 30s returned from overseas before being quarantined at Playford Hotel in Adelaide’s CBD.

He then returned to Victoria on May 4 and began to exhibit symptoms on May 8.

He was tested on Monday and returned a positive result on Tuesday, with the health department saying further tests had been arranged to confirm the diagnosis.

“Until then, the department is treating this as a positive case and acting accordingly,” it said on Tuesday.

“The individual is being interviewed and exposure sites are being verified.”

The new case means that the state’s 74 days without any local coronavirus cases had now been broken.

South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier explained that officials were looking at two possible theories as to how the man from Victoria had contracted the deadly virus.

One is that he caught coronavirus during his 14-day stint in hotel quarantine, or that he had been exposed to the virus before arriving in Australia and it had a “very, very long incubation period”.

“We know that is possible in some people, that they have a long incubation period longer than 14 days,” Professor Spurrier said, adding that she did not believe the man was infectious while in South Australia after he left hotel quarantine.

“(But) people are aware that this (transmission within the hotel) has happened in other hotels so this is obviously right at the top of our minds.”

“I think people have really started to understand that this is a particularly nasty and sneaky virus, which is easily transmitted from one person to another through droplets,” she said.

The Herald Sun has reported that workers at Melbourne CBD health company Citadel have been sent home as a precaution in light of the new case.

The man is currently being interviewed by contact tracers in regards to any potential exposure sites.

Health officials in Victoria have told the public that if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 – such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, chills or sweats, change in sense of smell or taste – to get a test immediately.

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