Australia’s Crown Resorts has confirmed the temporary suspension of gaming and hospitality operations at Crown Perth following a small outbreak of COVID-19 in the Western Australian capital city.
Crown issued a statement late Friday in which it said it had ceased all gaming activities and closed down all food and beverage, banqueting and conference facilities, other than for the provision of takeaway. However, hotel accommodation has remained available in a reduced capacity.
All eyes are now on Premier Mark McGowan who will announce later today whether or not a three-day snap lockdown implemented from Friday will be extended beyond this evening (Monday 26 April).
The three-day lockdown was implemented after a Victorian man who had been in hotel quarantine in Perth later tested positive upon returning home to Melbourne. It is believed the man, who had visited a number of locations across Perth upon completing his stay in quarantine, acquired the disease from an infectious family quarantining in the same hotel.
Two more locally acquired cases of COVID-19 have since been detected in people who dined at one of the same venues as the man, sparking fears that an extension of the lockdown may be unavoidable.
Crown Perth was closed for over three months last year, from 23 March until 27 June, following the global outbreak of COVID-19.
The company’s Perth operations remain the focus of an ongoing Royal Commission currently being held in Western Australia in response to the findings of an inquiry into Crown’s operations held in the state of New South Wales.
The subsequent Bergin Report found Crown unsuitable to retain its NSW casino license, although the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has flagged the likelihood that the license will be reissued later this year.
