Health authorities are rushing to close the quarantine loophole that allows potentially infectious international air crew to interact with locals.

A Sydney Airport driver has today been diagnosed with COVID-19, and genome sequencing is underway to confirm the source.

The infection of a hotel worker by a US air crew earlier this month broke a 26-day streak of zero cases.

Respond Global founder Dr Ian Norton told Luke Grant the issue needs to be urgently addressed.

“To call a spade a spade, we are really looking for elimination at this stage, by the policies that are being chased.

“The way to maintain that is a strong border.

“It’s tough for [air crew], for their mental health – they’re already doing a difficult job and they need to … socialise. But this virus is 80 or even 90 per cent transmitted by interpersonal contact.”

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