In yet ANOTHER mix up with public health advice, NSW Health has just announced that Sydney Airport’s T2 Domestic Terminal food court is actually not an exposure site.
NSW Health has just cancelled their public health advice from yesterday that listed Sydney’s T2 Domestic Terminal food court as an exposure site for five hours on Thursday, 24 June between 5am and 10am.
⚠️UPDATED INFORMATION: SYDNEY AIRPORT T2 FOOD COURT⚠️ pic.twitter.com/K0kxkK0QMU
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 28, 2021
As it turns out that, the confirmed COVID-19 case that was initially reported actually didn’t spend any time in the food court at all, which means all the people who isolated because they were contacts during those five hours have panicked themselves for nothing.
The mix up is the second in as many days, with NSW Health announcing that they incorrectly listed Crossroads Hotel (the centre of a cluster in 2020) as an exposure site, instead of Crossways Hotel.
While it’s better to accidentally list a venue as an exposure site and result in people getting unnecessarily tested than it is to *not* list an exposure site resulting in a spread, it’s still frustrating for the people affected.
They can only go by what people are advising Contract Tracers on their movements during a stressful interview people can make errors. It’s better to be over cautious than the other way.
— Dysee (@eesyDi) June 28, 2021
As someone who had to scramble to get a COVID-19 test yesterday because I was named a close contact (I’m negative), the fear of potentially having COVID, the anxiety of what this means for you, and your future, and your family, is a lot. My mum and siblings are all close contacts and quarantined as of yesterday, and despite it being only a little over 48 hours since I saw them last, it’s hard and lonely.
It’s because of the personal elements of potential exposure and the emotional impacts of isolating that mistakes like these suck, even when they’re inevitable.
I don’t blame contact-tracers because I imagine their job is hard enough as it is, but this is definitely not the “gold standard” we were promised.
