For seven months MB has called on governments to move quarantining of international arrivals out of densely packed hotels into low density accommodation in the regions, modeled on Howard Springs near Darwin:
The spacing of guests and abundant fresh air makes Howard Springs the ideal quarantine facility.
The logic behind this repeated call is obvious:
- Hotels increase the risk of infection between guests and staff due to being tightly packed, and sharing ventilation and hallways.
- By comparison, facilities like Howard Springs are located away from major population centres, provide abundant fresh air and space between guests and staff, and provide greater comfort for guests than being stuffed into a hotel room for two weeks.
Since the quarantine hotel program began in late June 2020, we have witnessed regular breaches that have resulted in three separate city/statewide lockdowns in Victoria (so far totaling four months), as well as multiple lockdowns across Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The costs have been enormous, totalling tens-of-billions of dollars in lost economic activity alongside hundreds of lives lost.
With this background in mind, it is disturbing to read that another returned traveler has caught COVID from a neighbouring guest in a Perth quarantine hotel:
Another person has been infected with COVID-19 while staying in a Perth quarantine hotel and authorities are urgently investigating how it took place.
The Health Department confirmed the virus was transmitted between two guests in neighbouring rooms at the Pan Pacific Hotel.
Genome sequencing data confirmed they had the same sequence of virus.
It is not yet known how transmission occurred.
Victoria is currently in a seven-day lockdown linked to a man who caught coronavirus while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide…
In April, Perth was plunged into a short lockdown after transmission within the Mercure Hotel in Perth.
How many more failures do we need to see before our governments take action and shift quarantine out of unsuitable hotels into mining-style camps like Howard Springs?
The Morrison Government is most at fault here. It has constitutional responsibility for quarantine, yet has failed to take action. Last month’s federal budget contained billions of dollars of funding for everything except the construction of national quarantine facilities.
A robust quarantine system is a key defence against the virus and vital to preventing further virus outbreaks and costly shutdowns.
The Morrison Government’s dereliction of duty must not go unpunished.
