Rolling coverage: World’s strictest quarantine for Australian Open

Rigid quarantine rules have been put in place for Australian Open players and workers amid fears a major outbreak could jeopardise the tournament.

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A COVID-19 outbreak at next month’s Australian Open could see the tournament scrapped by default.

Players and support staff will be tested daily and anyone who tests positive or is identified as a close contact would be banned from participating in the tournament unless cleared.

Police minister Lisa Neville, responsible for the tennis quarantine operation, said a major outbreak would put the tournament in jeopardy.

“If there are major outbreaks ... there won’t be tennis players to play,” she said.

“If we end up with enough people that are positive the tournament would be in jeopardy.”

More than 1200 players and support staff will start flying into Melbourne on 15 chartered flights from tomorrow.

They must have already returned negative COVID-19 tests and will undergo further testing at Melbourne Airport before being taken to one of three designated tennis quarantine hotels, the Grand Hyatt, View Melbourne and Pullman at Albert Park.

Only players and one support person will be allowed to leave their rooms once a day to train.

They will be limited to 130 minutes of on court training, a 90 minute gym session and a 60 minute nutrition session.

They will remain under escort at all times.

The Australian Open will look very different in 2021. File image: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Three dedicated training facilities at Melbourne Park, the National Tennis Centre and Albert Reserve will include access to gyms, physiotherapy and nutritionists overseen by COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria staff.

Ms Neville said the program was the strictest in the world for tennis players and meant it could be “as close to zero risk which you can get to the wider community”.

“I think it’s not a zero risk, you can never say it is,” she said. “But this is being managed as well as it possibly could be.”

“We are assuming that every single tennis player that arrives and their officials have the potential to be positive,” she said.

“So our program has been designed around that potential,” she said.

Ms Neville said the chief health officer had backed the event, and was still deciding final crowd numbers that would be allowed to attend.

“We have put in place the most robust structures in our chain for the next two-week period when our people are in hotel quarantine,” she said.

“I’m confident we have the strictest controls in place to do so.”

On Monday the Australian Open’s qualifying tournament was rocked by its first positive COVID-19 tests.

American Denis Kudla and Argentine Francisco Cerundolo were subsequently withdrawn from the Doha-based event despite winning their first-round qualifying matches. They have since been transferred to a quarantine hotel.

Players who breach quarantine face fines of up to $20,000 and further disciplinary action from Tennis Australia.

Opposition leader Michael O’Brien backed the plan.

“We place trust, as do all Victorians, that the government will get this right,” he said.

“We want to see these stars of international tennis coming to Melbourne. We want to have the chance to go and attend matches and enjoy the atmosphere, but obviously we need to do it safely,” he said.

NO LOCAL VIC CASES FOR SIX CONSECUTIVE DAYS

Victoria has recorded no new coronavirus cases overnight, marking six consecutive days without community transmission.

More than 18,000 tests were returned in the past 24 hours.

There are currently 38 active cases in Victoria.

In NSW, another five cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed, with two of those already revealed on Monday.

Of the new infections, one is linked to the Berala cluster and two were found in the northern beaches.

It comes as a Brisbane Bunnings and a bottle shop are on high alert after a man who contracted the highly contagious UK strain of COVID-19 visited the stores while potentially infectious.

Queensland recorded just one new locally acquired case of COVID-19 overnight, the partner of a hotel quarantine worker who contracted the virus last week.

A Brisbane passenger waits for a COVID test at Melbourne Airport on Saturday. Picture: David Crosling

STRANDED VICTORIANS FLOCK HOME

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for Victorians stuck in NSW with Monday’s introduction of a new “traffic light” system.

For Melbourne teacher Deirdre, the news came as a “relief” after her and her husband had spent nearly a month in the NSW border town of Wentworth.

The couple had been camping in the regional town with their son over the holiday period when the closure was announced and were unable to pack up their site in time, leaving them stranded.

Despite applying for two exemptions, Deirdre, who did not want her last name published, never received a response from the DHHS and said she was hung up on twice.

“The worst thing was just not having answers, that sort of thing is really frustrating. You feel like one is listening” she said.

Victorians stranded in interstate COVID hot spots now face fines of almost $5000 if caught trying to sneak back without a permit.

Under the new rules, anyone coming from a red zone — currently greater Sydney and greater Brisbane — is banned from entering Victoria without an exemption or separate transit permit.

Victorians returning without permission can be fined $4957 and forced to self-quarantine, while those from interstate will be fined the same amount and sent home.

However, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack questioned Victoria’s border permit system, saying it would make life harder for many Australians.

He said the state government did not consult with the federal government about its new traffic light scheme which dictates who can enter Victoria.

“Let’s see how it unfolds,” Mr McCormack said on Tuesday morning.

“But we don’t want to put more things in place, which is going to inconvenience more Australians, more Victorians, particularly regional Victorians, who’ve been impacted very unfairly, I’d say.”

“Many of them haven’t had a coronavirus in their communities for many months, if at all and they were very much impinged upon by the decisions made by Spring Street.”

More than 31,000 people have applied for a permit to enter Victoria since applications opened on Monday evening.

Sixty-two travellers who originally arrived from orange zones were free from quarantine after the rules changed, while a further 80 remain in isolation with results pending.

Families with school-aged children stranded in the Sydney and Brisbane red zones are still no clearer on whether they will make it home in time for school classes to resume from January 28, despite the government last week assuring they would. More than 9000 exemption applications for travel from red zones to Victoria on compassionate or medical grounds remain outstanding, while 1019 have been approved.

The new permit system is expected to significantly increase the number of assessments for eligibility.

Under the system, revealed by the Herald Sun on Monday, people from orange zones will be able to enter Victoria if they have no COVID-19 symptoms and have not been to a red zone.

However, they will have to self-isolate and get tested within 72 hours and continue to self-quarantine until they return a negative result.

Those from green zones will be approved for travel to Victoria if they have no COVID-19 symptoms and have not been to an orange or red zone. There will be no need for a test on arrival.

The Victorian government says it will not hesitate to close its borders. Picture: David Crosling

Daniel Andrews said there could be no guarantee a green zone would not suddenly be turned red based on health advice, and he warned Victorians to consider the risk when travelling interstate.

“If I get public health advice to lock out another part of the country from people from that part of the country travelling to Victoria, I will not hesitate to do that, I will do it in a moment,” the Premier said.

“The stakes are very high here. I make no apology for doing everything I can to keep Victoria safe.”

Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the system would remain in place until he was satisfied enough Australians had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

“The risk will remain in the early administration of vaccination to quarantine staff, to our frontline health workers, aged care residents and aged care workers,” he said.

“That protects those critical workforces and individuals, but it does not mitigate against the possibility of a widespread outbreak in other cohorts or populations that could still play out in Australia right up until the time that we’ve got sufficient vaccination-based immunity to really minimise the risk of significant outbreaks.”

Anyone who had been self-isolating after arriving from a Queensland red zone since January 2 was last night being advised they could leave isolation if they had a negative test result.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the new system was an overreach: “This is a huge step. It puts the government in control of every single Victorian’s life.”

WHEN WILL CBD WORKERS HEAD BACK TO OFFICE?

Business owners in Melbourne’s CBD are pleading for employees to return to their offices next week, with health officials currently reviewing the city’s back-to-work plan.

If the government opts for a strong return-to-work push, it is expected that rules mandating masks be worn indoors could be eased.

Health officials told the Herald Sun last week if Victoria had a handful of days of zero community cases, the masks rules would likely be relaxed and restrictions on gatherings could be reviewed.

Major Events Minister Martin Pakula on Tuesday said a decision on the return of office workers into the CBD could be made by Wednesday.

Read the full story here.

CHILD’S RESULT BELIEVED A FALSE POSITIVE

The state’s chief health officer believes a child who attended preschool in Melbourne then tested positive to COVID-19 overseas is likely a false positive.

The boy, who attended the Explorers Early Learning in Armadale on January 7, flew to Tel Aviv in Israel and returned a positive test upon arrival on Saturday.

But Professor Brett Sutton on Monday speculated the result, which was from a rapid test kit, would “end up not being a true positive case.”

“Rapid point of care tests have variable sensitivity and specificity, it’s my suspicion this is not going to end up being a confirmed positive test,” Prof Sutton said.

Chief Health officer Brett Sutton has hosed down COVID fears. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Wayne Taylor

“We are following that with Israeli authorities, as soon as we can get a determination on a more precise test, we will provide that information.”

He added that despite his suspicions, the centre had been closed for cleaning and “all individuals are being tested and will need to return a negative result as well.”

“So, low risk but we are taking a super cautionary approach in that individual,” Prof Sutton said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) said they were “taking all necessary precautions and investigating potential exposure sites” in the meantime.

The DHHS is also working with the Royal Children’s Hospital to test other children who attended the centre.