These revelations are really quite unbelievable:
Victoria’s Health Department allowed hotel quarantine guests infected with coronavirus to leave as soon as three days after a positive test if they were not displaying symptoms.
Michael Tait, a nurse who worked for the program at the Crown Metropol hotel, said in his submission to Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry on Thursday that “it seemed like the department did not care if COVID-19 patients just left the hotel and walked into the street”.
He testified that “the department policy was very relaxed – if someone tested positive, we would call them up three days later and check their symptoms. If they had no symptoms, they could leave.”
Mr Tait claimed a department representative told him not to swab “a known positive patient”, so the guest could leave quarantine early.
“I told him the policy was bullshit, but you just had to get on with it,” he said in his submission.
It used to be thought the Victoria had the highest quality public service in the country owing to some weird combination of lefty sentiment and the lack of a finance sector sucking out the bets and brightest.
So much for that theory.
