‘Rampant’: nearly 70 people have Covid at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, sources say

Sources inside Sydney's Villawood detention centre say the Covid-19 outbreak at the facility is rampant, with nearly 70 infections - a tenfold increase in two days.

Since Tuesday, when there were six cases, the Australian Border Force has refused to answer questions on how many Covid infections have been registered among the 450 people held within the nation's largest immigration detention centre.

But several people inside the centre have told Guardian Australia that they understand there are at least 68 confirmed positive cases - a number that is expected to grow further among a population with a significantly lower vaccination rate than the rest of the country.

Across Australia's immigration detention system, 59% of people detained are fully vaccinated, compared to 78% of the general community, and 92% of those aged over 16.

One person held in Villawood told the Guardian that the border force and Serco, the security contractor that runs the centre, were "playing catch up with the virus", and the centre should have been alert to the possibility of an outbreak.

"There have been plenty of warnings that have been ignored."

The person in detention said the centre switched to rapid antigen tests for suspected cases too late to stop the spread of the virus.