Troubled hotel quarantine program ‘needs new leadership’

Calls are mounting for infection control expert to take over Victoria’s hotel quarantine system after another cluster was linked to the troubled program.

Victoria’s quarantine is currently lead by Emma Cassar. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

The state opposition has called for an infection control expert to take over and publicly lead Victoria’s troubled hotel quarantine program.

Opposition police spokesman David Southwick said the top job – currently held by Corrections Victoria’s Emma Cassar – should be carried out by an expert in the field.

“Infection control breaches have caused hotel quarantine leaks, not guests escaping like runaway prisoners – so why do we have a Corrections Commissioner running these facilities?,” Mr Southwick said.

But the state government maintain health experts are embedded at every level of the program, which had been given the tick of approval from the National Review of Hotel Quarantine.

“Infection control is at the very centre of our hotel quarantine system and any suggestion otherwise demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about the program,” a spokeswoman said.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng is on the steering committee, and the IPC governance team is led by three experienced infectious diseases doctors.

“Commissioner Cassar’s proven experience in corrections and running highly sensitive and complex settings mean she is uniquely qualified to take on this challenge,” the spokeswoman added.

At least 21 hotel quarantine breaches have occurred across Australia in the last year.

Mr Southwick claimed staffing standards and hiring procedures also needed an overhaul, as authorities continue to work out if the highly-infectious Delta coronavirus strain leaked out of quarantine.

“Labor must ensure we have the right leadership and highest calibre staff who implement all appropriate procedures to plug the holes in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program,” he said.

The state government maintains the four theories being probed are yet to confirm that transmission occurred within the Novotel Ibis Melbourne Central hotel or the Holiday Inn health hotel.

Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said: “Something’s happened and we need to try and get to that, not just to see if there are close contacts that we need to run down now, but for any lessons around finding those gaps and those tiny improvements that might be made into the future.”

He said the man who brought the Delta variant into Victoria had shown “exemplary behaviour” from an infection prevention and control point of view.

Six hotel quarantine breaches – leading to known community transmission – have occurred since the program began at the start of the pandemic, not including the latest case.

At least 21 hotel quarantine breaches have occurred across Australia in the last year.