Contact tracing system slammed in parliamentary inquiry

A scathing report says one of the biggest mistakes in the Victorian government’s COVID-19 response happened before the pandemic even began.

Victorians died because the Andrews government repeatedly ignored key warnings about the state’s public health team before the COVID-19 pandemic, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

The damning report into the state’s contact tracing and testing regime said a string of government failures contributed to Victoria’s deadly second wave, harsh lockdown and hundreds of deaths.

They included ignoring warnings to increase staffing in the state’s public health team and move to a digital contact tracing system.

In its scathing report tabled on Monday, the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee said the government’s refusal to accept repeated warnings left it ill equipped to handle the pandemic.

While acknowledging Victoria now had a suitable contact tracing system, the committee found “it was not available when the Victorian public needed it”.

“This failure cost lives and was unable to be rectified without strict lockdown measures throughout the state,” it said.

Victorian lives could have been saved if the state government had properly prepared for the coronavirus pandemic, an inquiry found.

More than 18,000 Victorians contracted the virus and 801 died in the second wave.

Reports in 2016, 2018 and 2019 highlighted significant resourcing issues in the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control team of the Department of Health and Human Services.

It called for an urgent boost to the state’s contact tracing staffing resources and number of Public Health Officers.

Tom Voigt, a former acting manager of the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Unit, told the committee the view was the public health team was “low priority”.

“When this information was put before the appropriate DHHS deputy secretary the response was a very firm and direct ‘no’,” he said.

“No additional funding was available, nor would it be sought as the public health team was a low priority at that point in time.”

The report said the DHHS public health unit and contact tracing teams remained understaffed, and called for numbers to be increased in line with current recommendations. The recommendation was one of 19 handed down alongside 47 findings including the government was too slow to act.

Victoria also remained “significantly underprepared” to collect and manage key data up to October, nine months after the first case of coronavirus was recorded in the state.

It meant the government’s responses were “crisis built and reactive” which led to several mistakes and shortcomings that impeded the effective operation of the system.

The committee said while the pandemic was “unexpected … it is very troubled by the Victorian government’s inability to address these identified shortcomings”.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton. Picture: Getty

Both Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton repeatedly defended the contact tracing system against criticism during the second wave.

“The contact tracing team are doing an amazing job considering the volumes here,” Mr Andrews said in August after Melbourne entered stage four lockdown. The Premier said data showed contact tracing teams were meeting targets and said failures were inevitable because of the number of cases.

In September Victoria came under fire from Canberra when Health Minister Greg Hunt blamed the state’s second wave on a deficient contact tracing system.

Before updating to the current digital Test Tracker system, Victoria had a manual pen and paper process in place for gathering COVID-19 testing information. It rejected a transition to digital technology in March before taking up the offer in August, while the state was in the grip of the second wave. It led to strict and ongoing lockdown conditions, and a curfew, being imposed on millions of Victorians.

Health Minister Martin Foley acknowledged the government could have responded to the pandemic better.

But he refused to apologise for the government’s failings.

“What we have now is a test and tracing system that has enabled us 45 days continuously of zero community transmissions,” he said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said “a sad and huge price has been paid by Victorians due to Daniel Andrews’ arrogance and incompetence”.

“Labor’s botched hotel quarantine program caused Victoria’s second wave but Daniel Andrews’ woefully inadequate contact tracing system prolonged the second wave,” she said

[e-mail]