A security guard working at the Rydges on Swanston Hotel and sharing a home with an aged care worker has been identified as the first formal link between Victoria’s hotel quarantine program and the spread of COVID in the state’s aged care facilities.

A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) report tendered to Victoria’s Hotel Quarantine Inquiry has linked the infection at the Rydges genomically to two cases at the Embracia Reservoir aged care facility.

Embracia managing director Sarah McKenzie said, “Our staff member lived with a female security guard who had worked across these quarantine hotels.”

Ms McKenzie said the staff member linked to the Rydges had worked in Embracia's Reservoir where the virus had been contained, not the Avondale Heights centre where five residents died.

This comes after confirmation over the weekend that Daniel Andrews would front the hotel quarantine inquiry on September 23.