Victorian Govt. was warned hotel quarantine breaches were likely to occur

• Leaked emails show the Victorian Government was warned there were likely to be breaches of the hotel quarantine system
• From late March, the Government implemented mandatory 14-day quarantine in designated hotels for returning overseas citizens
• The quarantines were being overseen by hotel security guards, however, breaches occurred, allowing some guards to contract COVID-19
• It was then spread into the community, and Melbourne has now been locked down for a second time amid a second wave of infections
• Victoria has recorded triple-digit case numbers for over a week, with 270 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours

Leaked emails show the Victorian Government was warned hotel security guards weren’t equipped to oversee mandatory 14-day quarantines.

A report by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age shows top bureaucrats were told in late March that police needed to oversee those quarantining, not security.

They were concerned about a lack of personal protective equipment for security, ambiguous rules on when travellers were allowed to leave their rooms, as well as what could be delivered to them.

Since Australia’s borders closed in March, all returning overseas travellers have been forced to undertake a 14-day mandatory quarantine in designated hotels.

Since then, a number of breaches have occurred, with testing confirming a number of COVID-19 outbreaks from late May and early June are linked to security guards who contracted the infection from guests.

They then allegedly passed it on to friends and family, allowing it to spread in the community.

Victoria is now in the midst of a huge second wave of coronavirus infections.

For the last week case numbers have been in the triple digits, with 270 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours. In total, there are 4224 cases in the state.

Of those, 26 people are critically ill in intensive care wards in Victorian hospitals.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says he expects the number of hospitalisations to rise.

“That’s a measure of the fact that we’re going into a phase where a lot of our current cases will be deteriorating,” he said.

“There are 81 patients in hospital in total, an increase of 13 since yesterday,” he added.

The number of people in Victorian hospitals continues to climb steeply pic.twitter.com/NIMZBeRDEM

— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 14, 2020

All of Melbourne has been locked down for a second time since March in a bid to control the spread of the potentially deadly virus.

Million of residents will remain at home for six weeks under the orders, with exemptions in place for essential shopping, work commitments, exercise and medical care.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has also ordered a review into the hotel quarantine breaches, labelling them ‘unacceptable.’

The review will be overseen by former Judge Jennifer Coate and will see all agencies involved in the quarantine process come under scrutiny.

The first public hearing will be held on July 20.