NSW COVID-19: Premier defends hotel scheme after second guard infection
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has amditted “mistakes will happen” after a second security guard working at the Marriott quarantine hotel in Circular Quay became one of the four new NSW COVID-19 cases recorded in the 24 hours until 8pm Saturday night.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian has defended infection control processes at the state’s quarantine hotels, but says “mistakes will happen” and “we can’t assume that we’re going to have perfect compliance every day of the week”.
The comments come after a second security guard working at the Marriott quarantine hotel in Circular Quay tested positive for COVID-19.
The Premier said the hotel quarantine program is being continuously monitored, but said there’s no guarantee “that 100 percent of people are doing 100 percent of what they need to do 100 percent of the time.”
She said a federal audit of the state’s hotel quarantine system gave her confidence in the program.
“I don’t I don’t want to be boastful about the processes, but certainly (it) gave me confidence that the processes we have in place are good,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“However, you might have good processes, but that doesn’t mean people remember to do the right thing all of the time. And that’s why we do have to be vigilant,” she said.
A second security guard working in hotel quarantine tested positive for COVID late on Friday night, with the case reported in Sunday’s new infection numbers.
Health authorities were scrambling over the weekend to work out how he caught the virus. The security guard worked at the Marriott Hotel in Circular Quay on August 3, a day before a returned US-traveller at the hotel recorded a positive test.
“A pandemic means you can have every rule in place, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to have perfection. Far from it. Mistakes are going to be made,” Ms Berejiklian said.
It comes after State Labor called for security guards working in hotel quarantine to be employed full time, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus at other jobs.
“If there’s more we need to do to make the system tighter and safer, please let us know because we will do that,” Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday.
“But at this stage, there hasn’t been anything directly to do with state government agencies which has been brought to my attention,” she said.
The Premier also hosed down suggestions that the daily cap on Australians flying home should be increased until community transmission in NSW “stabilises”.
“We can perhaps have those discussions down the track, but at this stage, I’d like to see the existing numbers stay where they are,” she said.
The state recorded four new cases of COVID-19 out of more than 26,400 tests conducted in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday.
The figures came shortly after Victoria’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 400, including 17 new deaths on Sunday as case numbers once again jumped.
Two of the new NSW cases are among returned travellers in hotel quarantine, one is linked to the existing Apollo Restaurant cluster and another positive case is a hotel security guard.
Authorities are investigating how the guard — who was reported on Saturday — caught the infection.
He worked at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel while it was operating as a quarantine hotel for returned travellers and contact tracing is underway to determine anyone who was at risk.
There are now 3796 cases of COVID-19 in NSW with 90 people being treated by NSW Health with seven in intensive care. Five of them are being ventilated.
Anyone who attended Westfield Shopping Centre in Burwood on August 20 between 6pm and 7pm or Service NSW Burwood on August 21 between 2.30pm-3pm has been told to watch out for symptoms.
In Victoria 208 new cases of the virus were detected in the past 24 hours, the state’s health department confirmed.
Another 17 people died as a result of the virus which brought the total deaths to 415.
Despite the mounting death toll Victoria’s chief health officer said the latest figures were a sign of a dropping trajectory in the outbreak’s case figures.
“We are not going to see three-hundreds or four-hundreds again — not under my watch,” said chief health officer Dr Brett Sutton.
The figures come after the state recorded 182 cases and 13 deaths on Saturday.
Positive cases have been linked to Dandenong Hospital and Cabrini Hospital in Malvern.
SYDNEY MUSO SAYS HE CAUGHT COVID FROM QUARANTINE FOOD
After 12 days in hotel quarantine and so close to freedom he could almost taste it, Matt Young was devastated to test positive for COVID-19.
The 37-year-old Sydney-born musician, who also tested positive to the virus in Nashville in early July, was at the InterContinental at Circular Quay when the result came back three days from his release.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “After 12 days in a hotel without a balcony, I could almost taste freedom when I got the phone call no one wants to receive.”
The positive test result came after Young – who is an asymptomatic case – received a negative result after being tested on his second day.
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While Young could have brought back the disease from the US, the songwriter is convinced he came in contact with the virus while in hotel quarantine.
“Yes, there is a small chance I could have brought it with me from the US, but I don’t think that was the case because I flew from the US to Sydney over a three-day period with a guy and we sat shoulder to shoulder with no masks on, showing one another travel photos, eating together, and his test result is showing up as negative,” he said.
Instead, Young blames contaminated food.
“I have had no contact with anyone while I have been in hotel quarantine aside from two nurses who were dressed in full hazmat suits,” he said.
“The only thing that came into my hotel room was food.”
Since his positive result, Young has been transferred from The Intercontinental to the Meriton apartments in Mascot, where all positive patients must reside.
He said that while he understands NSW Health is still learning how to cope with the virus, there are “teething problems”.
“I know everyone is doing their best and that we have never seen anything like this before, but I have to say the whole situation feels very disorganised,” he said.
“There is no correspondence between the hotel and hospital and nurses working at the hotels.”
The one saving grace for Young is his music, with the guitarist killing time writing new songs.
“It will probably be the saddest, most depressing album you have ever heard,” he said.
It comes as Sydney’s west emerges as the latest COVID battleground.
One of the nine cases diagnosed in the most recent 24-hour testing period attended a Cabramatta Family Practice on Thursday. COVID cleaners swarmed the suburban medical centre on Friday night. NSW Health said everyone at the facility had been contacted.
Authorities have also issued a warning about customers who visited Aldi in Bonnyrigg on Tuesday, August 11, Aldi in Fairfield West on Sunday, August 16 and the Aldi Erskine Park store on August 7 or 8.
Meanwhile, 3 million Queenslanders have been told to “have a weekend at home” after a virus cluster at a youth detention centre threw greater Brisbane into a panic.
Six cases are now confirmed at the Wacol Youth Detention Centre on the city’s outskirts.