Medtronic’s office cleaned out in Macquarie Park, the only suburb in Australia to record untraced community transmission of Covid-19

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Global medical technology supply company Medtronic has been forced to close and clean out its Sydney office in Macquarie Park after a staff member tested positive to Covid-19.

Medtronic supplies medical technologies such as cardiac monitors, ventilators, stents, insulin pumps and heart valve replacement products to hospitals in 150 countries across the world.

The firm’s Macquarie Park office is located in Sydney’s north, adjacent to Macquarie University and BaptistCare Dorothy Henderson Lodge where there have been two deaths of elderly residents due to coronavirus and six other people at the facility have been diagnosed.

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Locals in the area had noticed Medtronic’s car park empty and a cleaning crew set up outside.

A spokeswoman for Medtronic told Guardian Australia a staff member tested positive to Covid-19 on 9 March.

“Our priority is for the privacy and wellbeing of our employee, who has been treated by healthcare professionals,” she said.

“The employee has been liaising directly with their hospital under advice of NSW Public Health.”

The staff member will be isolated until they return two negative test results, she said, and the Sydney office had been closed for two days since Wednesday for cleaning. Staff members were told to work from home at that time.

The Macquarie Park office is the company’s Australasian headquarters. Medtronic employs more 800 staff across Australia and New Zealand, and over 90,000 worldwide.

“We are also providing health checks for any employee who is experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms or had close contact with the affected employee,” she said.

The nearby Epping Boys high school closed last week after a 16-year-old student tested positive for coronavirus. It reopened on Monday after cleaning but 69 students and staff in contact with the student were told to self-isolate for 14 days.

Macquarie Park is the only place in Australia so far to record untraced community transmission of Covid-19. As of 1pm on Wednesday, there were 65 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New South Wales, with 1,004 cases under investigation.

The new cases on Wednesday included three women in their 20s and 30s who had returned from Italy, and one man in his 70s who is a contact of a resident in the Dorothy Henderson facility.

As of Thursday morning there were 128 confirmed cases of coronavirus nationally, with 27 cases, including two deaths without a reported history of overseas travel.