Victoria’s hotel quarantine hell continues

Melbourne airport’s Holiday Inn is the next quarantine hotel in Victoria to come under fire for failing to meet quarantine standards.

A healthcare worker, a member of staff and a guest raised separate concerns about some guards flouting hygiene protocols. 

The hotel, which has continued to take bookings from members of the public, is accused of allowing guards and security staff to work without masks or gloves and failing to dispose of personal protection equipment (PPE) correctly.

A Holiday Inn worker, told The Age on the condition of anonymity“We are all very scared about what’s going on.”

The Victorian State Government is now transitioning private guards out of the quarantine system to be replaced by Corrections Victoria officers.

Further headaches for the government have arisen at the airport's Park Royal Hotel, where a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 and may have worked while infectious.

Nineteen guards at Carlton's Rydges on Swanston, and their contacts were infected. They have stated they received just a 10-minute induction on infection-control protocols. 

All of this comes after Stamford Plaza Melbourne (SPM) was identified, through genomic sequence testing, as one of two city hotels where there had been a localised outbreak of Coronavirus.

The hotel says it has now tested all staff, with all testing negative to Covid-19.

The initial outbreak has been traced back to a security worker that was not directly employed by the hotel.

SPM say their negative test results validate their employee training, PPE practice and Health and Safety approach.

In a statement released on 24 June SPM said, “SPM takes the safety and health of all its guests and staff very seriously. It maintains high standards of hygiene, and practices social distancing in accordance with the federal and state guidelines. We continue to work closely with the Department to ensure that our guests and our staff continue to remain safe, including any additional measures required by the Department.” 

An inquiry is set to begin to establish how the virus managed to reinfect so many people around Melbourne in such a short period of time.

This process includes a review of the state’s hotel quarantine structure and a reset that will be under supervision of the Victorian Prisons Department.

This reset will see all international flights diverted from Melbourne to other cities for at least the next two weeks. No arrivals from overseas will be permitted to enter the state. For those currently in lockdown, they will be able to complete their enforced stay and then return to their homes.