Dedicated coronavirus quarantine facility to be set up in SA
The old Wakefield Hospital may become SA’s only quarantine site for all positive COVID cases after medi-hotel breaches - but the Government’s lease on the site ends next month.
Coronavirus
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All positive COVID cases in South Australia will be transferred from medi-hotels to a dedicated facility, the Premier has announced.
It follows news an expatriate couple in official quarantine at Peppers Hotel in Waymouth St tested positive to the virus after their arrival, with genomic testing confirming it is from the Parafield cluster strain.
Security at the new facility will be carried out solely by police and SA Protective Security officers, Premier Steven Marshall said in the daily COVID update.
The old Wakefield Hospital is being considered as the site. Staff at this facility will not be deployed to other hotels, jails, hospitals or aged-care centres. And all staff will have the option to rest away from home at SA’s “heroes hotel”, he said.
Steven Marshall said a “shield” was needed between SA and positive cases.
“We will now transfer positive COVID cases from medi-hotels to a dedicated health facility,” he said. “One option which we are now considering it the old Wakefield Hospital.”
He said the old Wakefield Hospital site in the CBD was large enough to handle a surge in positive case numbers.
“There is a large capacity there which can be flexed up to deal with surges,’’ he said.
Earlier in the year, the State Government leased the former Calvary facilities in Wakefield St and at Walkerville from ECH for six months. The Wakefield lease runs out in December.
The 130-bed Wakefield St hospital was to care for mildly acute COVID-19 patients while the Walkerville site was set aside for non-COVID patients to free up beds in public hospitals.
A major $100m redevelopment of the Wakefield site was announced in September to turn it into a state-of-the-art medical centre.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said Labor welcomed the move to use the former Wakefield hospital as a quarantine site.
“The contract with Wakefield Hospital is due to expire next month, and a private developer has announced construction plans for a private aged care and health precinct,” he said.
“The State Government must urgently work to extend this contract to ensure this important capacity will be available over the next six months at least.
“If necessary, the State Government should consider using its extraordinary emergency powers to ensure that the hospital is available to keep SA safe from further outbreaks.”
In other developments today:
- There are no new cases today, and now 29 cases related to the cluster;
- There was no deliberate breach of protocol at Peppers Hotel;
- A security guard and not the cleaner was the first person infected;
- Disciplinary action has been taken against some security staff
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens conceded: “I’m not pretending we are not under pressure with current resources.”
He added he was “hugely impressed with the professionalism and commitment” being shown by officers and he hoped many would be able to have time off over Christmas subject to resourcing requirements.
The Premier’s new eight-point plan to strengthen the medi-hotel system includes asking national cabinet to have all overseas travellers tested before they board flights to Australia and only be allowed to get on the flight if they are negative.
NO NEW CASES
No new cases were announced today.
There are now 29 cases related to the cluster, including the two cases which were initially thought to have come from overseas but come from Peppers Hotel.
A woman in her 50s is still in hospital but in a stable condition.
Authorities today said there were no incidents of staff going into travellers’ rooms, following a review into the Peppers Hotel breach.
“What the review found was that there has been no deliberate breach of protocol and no evidence of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr Marshall said.
A security guard and not the cleaner was the first person infected, SA Health also confirmed at today’s update, after reviewing footage from Peppers’ CCTV.
They are painstakingly checking the footage to see if there was any inadvertent lapse such as a person touching their face mask or a surface for clues to how the virus was transferred.
Disciplinary action has been taken against some security staff previously for not following PPE protocols and the hotel will undergo a “deep clean”.
Almost half the Peppers’ staff have been tested and these 75 staff yesterday returned negative results, giving chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier high hopes guests still there will not have to restart another 14 days’ quarantine.
However, she again urged vigilance in light of the Parafield cluster saying the virus is “more transmissible and more contagious than I could possibly have imagined.”
With hay fever around, she said members of the public who had a test recently which was negative but still had symptoms need only seek another test if the symptoms get worse.
While Mr Marshall said his eight-point plan will start “immediately” Prof Spurrier could not give a time frame on moving positive cases to the Wakefield site saying preparation work needs to be done.
SECURITY GUARD IS VIRUS SOURCE
She said the CCTV footage confirmed “the index cases is one of the security guards, not a cleaner.”
“There was no incidents of staff going into travellers’ rooms and no inappropriate behaviour,” Prof Spurrier said.
“Nobody was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is clear no significant breaches have been identified, it is much more subtle than that.”
She conceded “we may never know 100 per cent” how the security guard and the two arrivals from overseas contracted it at the hotel.
The Transition Committee meets on Friday and while Mr Marshall has repeatedly said he would ease restrictions as soon as it was safe to do so, he indicated rules governing hospitality venues would not be relaxed before December 1 as planned, despite pleas from the industry.
He also indicated any independent inquiry into the Parafield cluster would not occur before emergency conditions were lifted, meaning an independent probe into the hotel issues won’t happen before COVID is well under control.
CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas, who on the weekend called for a stop to the medi-hotel scheme in its current format, this morning “wholeheartedly” welcomed the new plan.
“We all want the same thing, we want a quarantine system that works and protects South Australians from the virus,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“This is why I wrote to the Premier and the Prime Minister on Saturday.
“Today’s decision is one significant step to improve our hotel quarantine system.”
Mr Malinauskas also would like to see an independent inquiry.
“We would absolutely welcome an independent inquiry to help provide the government with all the information that it needs to keep us safe and minimise economic repercussions,” he said.
SA BEST MP Frank Pangallo called for an independent inquiry after SA Health figures obtained by The Advertiser revealed more than 100 breaches across the state’s seven medi-hotels in the past two months.
“What’s needed now is a full independent inquiry into the management of our medi-hotels – preferably an interstate retired member of the judiciary or eminent QC,” Mr Pangallo said.
“To think there have been so many breaches since September in our medi-hotels makes you question why it was only last week that SA Health decided to impose regular testing of security staff at these sites.”
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