Members of an airline crew who arrived in Sydney from South America earlier this month have been fined for allegedly breaching local COVID-19 rules, officials said on Friday.

Thirteen members of the crew were each issued with a 1,000-dollar (760-U.S. dollar) fine for failing to comply with self-isolation ministerial directions.

While air crews are not required to isolate for 14 days as are other international arrivals, they do have to remain isolated from the community until they board an outbound flight.

According to Police Force of the state of New South Wales (NSW), the individuals left a hotel where they were supposed to be in temporary quarantine and visited nearby businesses.

News of the fines followed reports on Friday morning that a COVID-19 cluster in Sydney's north had shot up to 28 positive cases, with genomic testing showing the outbreak originated overseas.

All of the crew members who received the fines were tested for COVID-19 and returned a negative result.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that quarantine measures for international aircrews would be changed including reducing the number of hotel facilities used to house them from over 25 to just two.

"The systems themselves haven't been the challenge, but it's been people disobeying," she said.

"From Tuesday, there'll be no chance of disobedience, given the police and (NSW) Health will be ensuring that they are located at two places close to the airport," she said.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

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