Security guards to front hotel quarantine inquiry next week as hearing days added
Victoria’s quarantine hotel inquiry is set for an explosive start, with security guards at the centre of the debacle to be grilled in an attempt to shed light on the catastrophic failures that sparked the deadly second COVID-19 wave.
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Security guards at the centre of the hotel quarantine debacle will appear before the inquiry next week to shed light on the catastrophic failures that sparked Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave.
Inquiry chair Jennifer Coate has scheduled an extra two days of hearings as the quarantine inquiry prepares for an explosive start by calling witnesses who worked at the hotels.
Returning international travellers who did their compulsory 14-day quarantine at the hotels where the virus escaped will also give evidence.
While the witness list has not been publicly released, Ms Coate has scheduled extra hearings on Thursday and Friday to examine the experience of being in quarantine, and the experience of working in the hotel quarantine program.
This will include security guards who were working at the hotels when the virus spread and leaked into the wider Victorian community.
The inquiry opens on Monday with medical experts, who are expected to give evidence on the proportion of Victoria’s deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections caused by leaks out of the quarantine hotels.
It is expected to reveal most, if not all, cases can be linked back to those working at quarantine hotels in Melbourne, particularly at the Stamford Plaza in Melbourne’s CBD and the Rydges on Swanston.
Following opening statements on Monday, expert witnesses will be called to give evidence on infection control, epidemiology and contact tracing and genomic testing.
Professor Lindsay Grayson, the director of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Austin Health and Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, along with Professor Ben Howden, the director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty Institute, will give evidence on Monday.
Dr Charles Alpren, an epidemiologist from the Department of Health and Human Services, will appear on Tuesday.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton have both declined to release genomic testing information, citing, among other reasons, the fact it belonged to the Doherty Institute.
Genomic testing allows authorities to track where a virus has come from.
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