SA to use medi-hotels for Covid-19 quarantine until at least August 2022: Chris Picton

Medi-hotels are likely here to stay as transport tenders reveal plans to extend their use rather than build dedicated quarantine facilities.

State Government plans to use medi-hotels for Covid-19 quarantine until August 2022 and beyond have been exposed in official tender documents.

The Labor Opposition found the State Government has been signing contracts for medi-hotel transport to cover the extended period.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton asked: “If the Marshall Liberal Government is seeking to sign quarantine contracts for one, or even two more years, why not invest in purpose-built quarantine?”

“Medi-hotels have consistently failed to contain the virus – putting our community and our economy at risk,” he said.

“Decades-old hotels were built to accommodate tourists and business travellers, not contain a virus. Nobody thinks COVID-19 is going away tomorrow, so why not invest in purpose-built quarantine facilities?”

He said the extension would double the time medi-hotels have been used and demanded to know why the Premier was refusing to build safer, purpose-built quarantine facilities.

Inpex Howard Springs quarantine facility near Darwin. Picture: Supplied

Premier Steven Marshall siad Labor’s plan would only increase the risk to South Australia, because it would allow more than the current 530 people a week to enter the state from overseas.

“Labor are talking about additional quarantine facilities, that means more people coming in, that’s a higher level of risk,” he said.

“We’re taking about 8 per cent of all of those stranded Australians back into South Australia,

that’s more than our share and we are not looking to increase it.”

But Mr Picton said “That is an outright lie from Steven Marshall... we want to have a dedicated facility to replace medi-hotels.”

The problem with that plan is the Prime Minister has made Commonwealth funding conditional on quarantine facilities providing additional capacity for overseas arrivals.

In November last year, Labor called for the Marshall Liberal Government to end the medi-hotel program and invest in purpose-built quarantine, citing expert commentary around the Howard Springs model in the Northern Territory.

Labor suggested the RAAF Edinburgh base would be a suitable site for quarantine, within an hour of the RAH, but the Defence Department had previously dismissed the idea after a comprehensive review.

“Defence facilities did not meet the federal and state health standards for quarantine, nor could quarantine be conducted in a way that would not severely impact Defence operations generated from these bases,” a spokesperson said.

A QANTAS flight carrying returning Australians touched down at RAAF Base Darwin, with passengers transported to Howard Springs Quarantine Facility. Picture: ADF, supplied

Victoria is building its own permanent facility, with the support of the Commonwealth. Other states are exploring their own projects.

Mr Picton said Victoria’s $200m 500-bed facility was a good model for SA to replicate, but the state needed to invest in plans for such a facility.

There have been 21 cases of COVID-19 leaking from medi-hotels in Australia, including the Peppers Hotel outbreak in November, which led to the statewide lockdown and the Playford Hotel outbreak which led to the Victorian lockdown.

The tender for bus services to transport international arrivals from Adelaide Airport to medi-hotels reveal the government is seeking a term of at least 12 months until August 2022, with the option to extend until August 2023.

That means the State Government projects hotel quarantine will be used for at least another 14 months – and in total it will have been in operation for two years and three months since it first started in April 2020.

Mr Picton said the tender documents released by the Government also said “it would be preferred if bus drivers were vaccinated” but did not mandate that requirement.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner visit the Howard Springs Facility in Darwin on April 28, 2021. Picture: Adam Taylor via PMO

Follow @ClarePeddie