Coronavirus Qld: Hotel Grand Chancellor guest lashes out over quarantine ‘overreaction’
Guests at the hotel at the centre of Queensland’s concerning cluster of the highly infections UK COVID-19 strain have lashed out about how authorities are handling their transfer elsewhere.
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A guest at the Grand Chancellor Hotel has been told he will have to stay another night despite it being the site of a COVID-19 outbreak.
Paul Atta was due to end his quarantine on Friday after flying in from Canada but will now be moved to another hotel to begin his 14 days again.
But despite ambulances removing guests throughout the day, some appear to have been told they will need to remain another night.
“I’ve just been told I may not even get to the new hotel until tomorrow sometime,” he said.
“If this hotel is as dangerous as they say, then why am I and others being made to stay another night - and on top of that expected to eat food prepared in the infected hotel.
“Who’s in charge here? This is madness.
“I haven’t even been tested today due to an error. Are you kidding me? You can’t even get the testing correct.”
Returned overseas travellers at the hotel at the centre of Queensland’s concerning cluster of the highly infections UK COVID-19 strain have been lashing out all day at the “vague” way guests were told they’d have to endure another 14 days in quarantine.
Mr Atta, who has been quarantining on the 11th floor since his arrival in Australia from Canada, was due to leave the Grand Chancellor on Friday, but the discovery of two more cases in the hotel has got authorities scrambling for answers as they try to determine how it was transmitted.
SEE THE LETTER SENT TO TRAVELLERS QUARANTINING AT THE HOTEL BELOW
Both cases, which take the hotel cluster to six, were caught by guests simply being on the same floor as existing cases, with Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young admitting she still did not know how the highly infections strain was transmitted inside the hotel.
“This is new information to have six people linked to someone who has been in quarantine,” she said.
“This has happened very quickly and we’re struggling to find out how it’s got out of that room.
“I don’t understand how it happened on floor 7. I don’t know how it’s transmitted.
“We need to just find all those people and test them.”
Returned overseas travellers, including Mr Atta, who have already completed close to 14 days in quarantine at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, were told they would be evacuated to other hotels for another 14 days as authorities scramble to establish how the cases have been transmitted.
They will not be charged for their stays.
Mr Atta said guests were given no proper explanation, instead receiving a “vague letter with our breakfast”.
“The media got a lot more information about what was going to happen than those affected,” he said.
“The letter we got was vague to say the best. Nobody wants to answer questions, so we just sit here and wait.
“It’s a total disgrace ... we have done everything right, not complained the whole time (and) kept positive because we thought we were doing the right thing - and then this overreaction.
“If it’s not safe for me to leave as planned on Friday, then it can’t be safe for the cricket and other things like that.
“All I know is myself and others are suffering because someone made a mistake.
“I understand what they are trying to do. But it hurts when we are treated like nothing and don’t get told (why). Our lives are the ones turned upside down.”
Another hotel guest, Geoff Crooks, had been due to leave the Grand Chancellor today.
“(I’m) just very, very angry,” he said.
“We were due to leave this morning (and were) told at 11pm last night.
“My brother’s funeral is tomorrow in Sydney.”
He said he was angry people in the hotel had been exposed to the virus.
“They have known for a week. They keep telling us it’s 70 per cent contagious, yet they keep us in here,” Mr Crooks said.
Mr Crooks, who has had four negative COVID test results, said he felt safer in the US than he does in hotel quarantine in Queensland.
“There’s so much paranoia, I get why we should be concerned but if this UK variant is that contagious then why have we been in this hotel for so long,” he said.
“I felt safer in America than I do here, at least over there I was outside and not locked indoors. I hear the Premier and the Minister for Health saying you are much safer outside yet here we are. We are pro-quarantine and we believe we need to do it, but it’s got to be done properly.”
Another Queenslander in hotel quarantine, Georgia Sheedy – who is a doctor returning home from France – was due to leave the Hotel Grand Chancellor at 12:01am Wednesday morning, only to be told 15 minutes earlier that she wouldn’t be able to.
Her father, Paul, was driving from the Sunshine Coast to pick her up when he found out she wouldn’t be released at the 11th hour, without any communication or explanation at the time.
“She comes from a medical background and so she understands what’s going on, it’s just the lack of communication last night we were all a bit disturbed,” he said.
“Probably the hardest thing was when you’ve got an end point in view and then suddenly you’re there for another 14 days – it was pretty tough last night.”
Mr Sheedy said Georgia has tested negative twice, and is in good spirits despite the devastating news of quarantining alone for possibly another fortnight.
“It’s been seven months since we last saw her – with all the communications these days we can still video message and things like that so it’s not completely isolated, but it will be nice to give her a hug,” he said.
Combined with 250 guests who had stayed at the hotel since December 30, 226 workers and 129 current guests who have been relocated to other hotels, it means more than 600 people will be forced into quarantine.
Queensland Premier Annastacia said having to do an additional 14 days of quarantine was going to be tough for Hotel Grand Chancellor guests. But she said it was necessary.
“What we are seeing is that this UK variant is unknown,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I think we need to immediately look at the way in which we are handling people coming into the country ... and also too looking at the quarantine hotels that they are going into,” she said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said transferring people out of the Hotel Grand Chancellor was a “step in the right direction”.
She said Queenslanders needed certainty around the state’s quarantine system.
“How did this happen in the first place?” she said.
“How do we make sure it doesn’t happen again and after a snap three-day lockdown, Queenslanders need certainty and clarity to make sure that we have got the best hotel quarantine in the state.”
Ms Bates said the government had a responsibility to ensure the state’s quarantine system was the best it could be.
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