Families of second wave victims want decision-makers to be held accountable
The anger of families of victims who died during Victoria’s catastrophic second coronavirus wave is growing amid revelations the virus was able to spread from hotel quarantine blunders. Here is their plea.
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The families of victims of Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 have called for justice and accountability from the state government, following revelations that almost all cases originated from the bungled hotel quarantine program.
CHARLIE AND CARMEN MICALLEF
Frank Micallef, who lost both his parents Charlie, 87, and Carmen, 92, says the impact on his family has been “the equivalent of a nuclear bomb” and those in charge need to be held to account.
Mr Micallef said it was “totally devastating” to learn about 99 per cent of secondwave cases have been genomically linked to returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
“The whole thing reeks of really bad and, in our case, fatal decision-making,” he said.
“The circumstances under which my parents died shouldn’t have happened. and it all goes back to the hotel quarantine. It is very simple.
“There has been a lack of coherent and plausible answers from our politicians — their answers don’t pass the pub test. Clearly it was a shambles, it has cost a lot of people their lives. It has cost the Victorian economy, it is not good enough. The result is billions in economic devastation and hundreds of deaths.”
Mr Micallef died at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on August 2, just 31 hours after Ms Micallef died at Glendale aged-care home.
Their son said a private sector CEO would “not survive” such a mismanaged program.
“You don’t get to sit there and claim ignorance — you have to know what everyone sitting underneath you is doing,” he said.
“That is 101 in management — making sure who is doing what, and who is responsible for what.
“We can’t allow our politicians and bureaucrats to get away with this, we need to hold them accountable otherwise it will happen again.”
FOTINI ATZARAKIS
The 77-year-old St Basil’s aged-care resident caught the virus at the Fawkner care home, dying in hospital 10 days later. Her daughter Kathy Bourinaris says the second wave was “totally preventable”.
She slammed both the hotel quarantine blunders and the failure of aged-care facilities to keep their residents safe.
“Someone needs to be held accountable for the hotel blunder, as well as the aged-care negligence,” she said.
“So many lives have been lost, it can’t just be a slap on the wrist.
“What happened in our nursing homes is unforgivable, these outbreaks were 100 per cent preventable. All of it could have been prevented, my mum should have been alive.”
Ms Bourinaris said she believed the military and police should have been brought in to guard the hotel quarantine program.
The inquiry into the scandal heard expert evidence this week that an outbreak at Rydges on Swanston, and two separate outbreaks at the Stamford Plaza Hotel, led to 99 per cent of Victoria’s second-wave cases.
In remarkable evidence, the inquiry was also told there was confusion over who was in charge of the program and that private security workers guarding the hotels were not required to wear personal protective equipment, including masks, when they were in hotel foyers and corridors.
“The right people and training measures weren’t put into place,” Ms Bourinaris said.
“They should not have had the security guards there. It wasn’t handled correctly. If that was controlled properly, I don’t think we would’ve had a second wave to this degree.”
Ms Bourinaris said she was suffering from immense grief a month on from her mother’s death.
“It is one thing to lose a parent, a loved one, but it is another thing to lose her this way,” she said.
“It is totally, unfair, totally unjust — the negligence of that nursing home. We were robbed of everything. She was robbed of everything. It is just the worst thing ever.
“COVID is here for a long time, we have to learn to live with it. The second wave was totally preventable. What has happened in our nursing homes is unforgivable.”
MARIJA RUKAVINA
Ivan Rukavina’s mum, 86, died after she was infected with the virus at St Basil’s.
“Up until now I have been pretty sceptical about (Premier) Daniel Andrews being at fault, and [thought] it was the community who wasn’t doing what they should be doing,” he said.
“But at the end of the day the way it has been transferred to the community — we are a developed country, this shouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Rukavina said people were losing their businesses, compounding the trauma of personal tragedies.
He also said that the virus’s spread had revealed tragic shortcomings in the aged-care sector.
“Why were they waiting for this time bomb to just happen?” he said.
“You don’t see public hospitals with one nurse for 50 patients, do you?”
“They should not have had the security guards there. It wasn’t handled correctly. If that was controlled properly, I don’t think we would’ve had a second wave to this degree.”
Ms Bourinaris said she was suffering from immense grief a month on from her mother’s death.
“It is one thing to lose a parent, a loved one but it is another thing to lose her this way,” she said.
“It is totally, unfair, totally unjust – the negligence of that nursing home.
“We were robbed of everything. She was robbed of everything. It is just the worst thing ever.
“COVID is here for a long time, we have to learn to live with it. The second wave was totally preventable. What has happened in our nursing homes is unforgivable.”
Ivan Rukavina’s mum Marija Rukavina, 86, died after she was infected with the virus at St Basil’s.
“Up until now I have been pretty sceptical about (Premier) Daniel Andrews being at fault, and [thought] it was the community who wasn’t doing what they should be doing,” he said.
“But at the end of the day the way it has been transferred to the community – we are a developed country, this shouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Rukavina said people were losing their businesses, compounding the trauma of “human life”.
He also said that the virus’ spread had revealed tragic shortcomings in the aged care sector.
“Why were they waiting for this time bomb to just happen?” he said.
“You don’t see public hospitals with one nurse for 50 patients, do you?”
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