Rolling coverage: Six returned travellers moved to ‘hot hotels’ after showing virus symptoms
Six returned travellers in Victoria have been moved to the state’s “hot hotel” after displaying virus symptoms.
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Six returned travellers with coronavirus symptoms have been sent to the state’s “hot hotel” after Victoria restarted its hotel quarantine program on Monday.
All of the passengers have been tested but no positive results have yet been returned.
It comes as a further 25 people flew in to the state from overseas on Tuesday with four more flights currently on route.
GOLDEN PLAINS FESTIVAL CANCELLED
The 2021 Golden Plains Music Festival has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
The two-night camping festival in Meredith in regional Victoria was due to be held over the March Labour Day long weekend.
Organisers announced on Tuesday night next year’s event was not going ahead.
In an email to subscribers, the message said: “The Space-Time Continuum has wibbled, and it has webbled, but I’m sorry to say it has not wobbled open wide enough to grant safe passage for Golden Plains this Autumn.”
“When favourable atmospheric conditions return, the full, rolled-gold, four-dimensional GP experience will land again. All dancing, all singing from the same songbook, in a close encounter of the Fifteenth kind. One more spin around the sun should do the trick.”
It follows the cancellation of this year’s Meredith Music Festival, which was due to go ahead this weekend, December 11-13.
This year’s Golden Plains Music Festival was held on March 7-9 just prior to the lockdown.
GOVT VOWS TO PURSUE ALL COVID FINES
Victorian teens racked up more than $3 million in coronavirus fines, with the state government vowing to pursue every cent.
Attorney General Jill Hennessy told parliament on Tuesday the government would not waive any of the fines issued to an estimated 2000 teens aged 14 to 17.
They include a $1600 fine for a 14-year-old girl who was caught more than 5km from home but had recently arrived in Australia and spoke limited English.
A 17-year-old suffering from mental illness and an intellectual disability was also fined $1600 while shopping for groceries outside her 5km radius.
“The government does not make decisions around waiving fines,” Ms Hennessy said.
“There are processes where fines can be appealed, and there are supports for many people—from the community legal sector through to those that support disadvantaged communities that can assist people should they have a compelling case to challenge a fine or to have a fine withdrawn—but the government has no intention of withdrawing fines that have been lawfully imposed,” she said.
Data collated by the COVID-19 Fines Community Lawyer Working Group found that at least 2,000 children aged between 14 and 17 for COVID-related offences this year.
They were fined the same as adult offenders, between $200 and $5000, despite limits on amounts youths can be fined through a normal court process.
Greens MP Tim Read said many of the teens had no realistic prospect of paying the fines.
“Children from low income families have been disproportionately hit by COVID-related fines and these large unpaid fines are now threatening their future,” he said.
“It’s disappointing to hear the government say it has no intention of waiving the fines given to people under 18, given so many young people have no realistic prospects of paying them.
“We need to protect young people from entering the criminal justice system, not push them towards it.”
Mr Read said the government’s refusal to waive the fines ignored the potential long-standing impacts they would have on young people saddled with them.
Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) a coalition of Victorian youth advocates, legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services also called for the fines to be waived.
“Lumping children and young people with enormous fines only creates stress and anxiety during arguably the most difficult year of their lives,” spokesperson Tiffany Overall said.
“Asking children, young people and their families to pay a $1652 fine on top of all the challenges COVID-19 has presented with job loss, disrupted education and social isolation is cruel and unnecessary. If unpaid, there is the risk that these young people will be pulled into the justice system.
“We are helping many young people who received fines while they were homeless, experiencing mental health episodes, recently arrived in Australia with little or no English, and those in residential care.
“I don’t believe any Victorian would support fining children millions of dollars during a pandemic. It’s time to show compassion and reverse these fines.”
Last month Reason Party leader Fiona Patten demanded the government immediately withdraw the fines for all people under the age of 18.
“These fines are many times higher than what is actually allowed in the children’s court,” said Ms Patten.
“The Government should launch a review into how these mistakes were made and withdraw the fines immediately.”
In October it was revealed just 4 per cent of the $28 million in fines for coronavirus breaches had been paid.
Only 845 fines — about $1.45m — had been fully paid while 18 per cent had reached the “final demand” stage after which recipients risk having property seized or being sent to jail.
QUARANTINED TRAVELLERS FACING TOUGH BOOZE RULE
Hotel detainees will have to drink from the minibar instead of ordering a case of beers from Dan Murphy’s, under State Government quarantine rules.
Police Minister Lisa Neville confirmed on Tuesday that return travellers would not be forced to go alcohol-free, but due to responsible service laws, they could not order booze to their hotel room from outside outlets, like Dan Murphy’s.
“They are able to order hotel booze,” Ms Neville said.
“The hotel has a responsible alcohol requirement on how much they can provide and of course Dan Murphy’s doesn’t.”
It comes after there were concerns raised that travellers would have to detox during their two week quarantine stay.
Meanwhile, more ADF personnel were expected to arrive on Tuesday in addition to the 109 already stationed at hotels in Victoria.
“We actually had a surplus yesterday so we well and truly have got enough at the moment,” sMs Neville said.
“And it’s going to ramp up over the next few days,”
She also clarified that GPs working in the quarantine hotels were able to keep working at their secondary employment due to their previous contracts.
These members however, were not working in private practice seeing clients and were contracted to the government. They were also not working in the hot hotels designated for travellers with symptoms.
Meanwhile, Victoria police members with a partner in high-risk sectors, such as aged care, would be barred from filling shifts at the quarantine hotels.
VIRUS-FREE RUN CONTINUES DESPITE SYMPTOMATIC TRAVELLER
Victorians have been assured the revamped hotel quarantine program is “gold standard”, as the first of thousands of returned travellers touched down in Melbourne on Monday.
One of the 253 people who arrived in Melbourne on Monday showed symptoms of coronavirus and was transferred to a “hot hotel”.
Despite fears it could put an end to Victoria’s streak of COVID-free days, no new cases were recorded overnight.
It brings the state to 39 consecutive days without recording a new coronavirus case.
Police Minister Lisa Neville took full responsibility for the new program, after the first version sparked the state’s second COVID-19 wave, which claimed more than 800 lives.
“I am confident we have the best system we can, the most robust system we can, to minimise the risk of any significant outbreaks of this virus,” Ms Neville said at Melbourne Airport on Monday.
“We have the best standards in the country, to give the best assurance and best protections for Victoria. We have robust systems in the hotels with the staff to minimise the risk and a strong contact tracing system that will immediately get in action.
“I take responsibility for this program. I see it as a challenge.
“The Australian healthcare professionals gave it a gold standard the other day. We are very confident we have put in the most stringent risk management structures and oversight that we can possibly do.”
Ms Neville said authorities would “absolutely be upfront” with the public should another outbreak occur.
On Monday, 253 people returned to Melbourne, up from the expected 160 “cap” per day.
Returned travellers will initially be sent to two hotels, the Park Royal and the Pan Pacific, just off a street aptly named Rona Walk.
A “health” hotel, where the symptomatic passenger and eight others with medical needs were taken on Monday, has also been set up.
Ms Neville said day one had gone “according to plan”.
“They (Victorians) can absolutely be assured this program has been completely reset,” she said.
“This is a completely different program from the time someone boards a plane overseas right through to the day they leave hotel quarantine.
“Of course we have humans involved in this so there is always an element of risk.
“The risk is much lower than it was previously. It is our number one priority. We will continue to assess and upgrade it if needed.”
WA TO REOPEN BORDER TO VICTORIA ON TUESDAY
Christmas has come early to Victorians with family in WA, or chasing a holiday out west, with WA Premier Mark McGowan confirming the border restrictions would lift on Tuesday as planned.
Victorians can now travel quarantine-free to Western Australia for the first time in eight months.
A final decision about reopening to NSW and Victoria was delayed until Monday after a hotel worker tested positive to coronavirus in Sydney.
Mr McGowan thanked people for their patience and understanding after WA’s border had been shut since April 6.
He said despite the bungle that saw two international travellers skip hotel quarantine in Sydney and board a flight to Melbourne, the state felt it was still safe to reopen.
“All through the pandemic I’ve made it crystal clear that Western Australia will take a careful, cautious approach to opening the border,” he said.
Jetstar has announced it will be the first commercial airline to fly direct from the east coast to the Margaret River region.
It will offer three flights a week from Melbourne to Busselton from February 1, with fares starting at $149 one way.
The new route was due to launch in March this year but those plans were grounded by the pandemic.
Jetstar group chief executive Gareth Evans said he expected there would be strong demand for the flights.
“Margaret River is renowned for its food, natural beauty and surf beaches and offers a great variety of experiences for travellers looking to explore more of Australia in 2021,” he said.
BERWICK CLOTHING STORE FIGHTS COVID FINE
A Berwick retailer has vowed to fight an almost $10,000 fine in court after he reopened his shop during stage four restrictions.
Harry’s Clothing owner Harry Hutchinson, who was slapped with a $9913 fine for operating in breach of the stage 4 chief health officer directions in October, said he refused to pay the hefty fine saying he was providing an essential service during restrictions.
“It’s my right to run a business and I was providing essential clothing to people who were attending funerals and also for my community who supported me,” Mr Hutchinson said.
Read the full news report here.
HERO COVID GUARD ‘IN RIGHT PLACE AT RIGHT TIME’
A switched-on security guard who raised the alarm about two German travellers who’d mistakenly bypassed quarantine says he was just doing his job.
Claudio Cominotto, who was working at Melbourne Airport on Saturday afternoon when the mum and teenage son approached asking where to quarantine, immediately alerted duty manager Peter Mikha.
The hero duo, who have worked together for seven years, have been praised for averting a potential virus disaster.
Mr Cominotto, among about 180 people forced to isolate over the scare, exclusively told the Herald Sun: “I was just at the right place at the right time and doing my job.”
VICTORIA LOSING CREDIT RATING AFTER SECOND WAVE ‘NOT A BIG DEAL’
If ever there was a good time to lose a AAA credit rating, it is right now – especially as NSW is coming down with Victoria and for exactly the same reason, writes Terry McCrann.
This is the soaring state debt – Victoria’s is going to $153bn, NSW’s ‘only’ to $104bn, and so NSW was downgraded only one notch to AA plus, while Victoria went down two notches to AA.
There are three big reasons why in 2020 it’s not that big a deal – and certainly very, very different to when Victoria lost its AAA rating as the ‘rust-bucket state’ in the depths of the recession of the early 1990s.
Read his COVID economic analysis here
RETAIL, HOSPITALITY FOCUS OF COVID COMPLIANCE CHECKS
Retail and hospitality have been the focus of government agencies monitoring Covid safety compliance as the restrictions ease with a total of 155,572 businesses contacted.
As consumers encounter a mixed bag of approaches from retailers, from stringently enforced to near non-existent, the Department of Human Services, WorkSafe, Department of Transport, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with the support of the Victoria Police, have been checking relevant businesses are complying with COVID-Safe requirements.
Read the full report here
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