Covid-19 breach at hospital forces two unvaccinated workers into hotel quarantine, as three crew from ship test positive

Two unvaccinated healthcare workers have been forced into quarantine after a Covid-19 breach at a hospital that has been labelled ‘not good enough’.

Three crew members who were evacuated from a cargo ship docked in Perth have tested positive for Covid-19, while a hospital breach has forced two unvaccinated healthcare workers to go into hotel quarantine.

The trio from the bulk carrier Darya Krishna were taken off the vessel on Monday to be treated at Fiona Stanley Hospital after displaying symptoms of Covid-19.

One of them in particular appeared to be very unwell, with vision showing him taken out on a stretcher and loaded into the back of an ambulance with an oxygen tank.

Health Minister Roger Cook told reporters on Tuesday that all three were “critically ill” when they were taken off the ship and had since tested positive for the virus.

He also revealed there had been a breach at the hospital due to a mechanical fault in the lift.

“This is very disappointing and I’m not going to make excuses — it is simply not good enough,” Mr Cook said.

Three crew from the Darya Krishna have tested positive for the virus.

“We are very clear about our instructions that all Covid protocols needed to be followed to reduce the risk to the West Australian community.

“The Premier and I have requested a full review of the incident to ensure this does not happen again.”

The bungle means two healthcare workers have been forced to enter hotel quarantine for two weeks.

The risk is believed to be “extremely low” but neither of the workers were vaccinated.

One of them is a technician and the other is a cadet nurse.

Mr Cook said the incident was a “wake-up call” for health staff to get vaccinated even if they were not working directly with Covid-19 cases.

“I’m very angry and disappointed and frustrated that this has occurred, but we take it on the chin (and) we learn from it,” he said.

“I just want to emphasise to all hospital leaders that we can’t allow this to occur.”

The bungle happened at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

The entire transfer process involved taking the trio to a negative pressure room in the emergency department of the hospital before they were moved to the intensive care unit.

A service lift, which is not accessible to the public, travelled from the basement to the ICU on level one, then was supposed to go up to the helipad on level nine, where it was to be aired out for 30 minutes and cleaned.

The lift was mechanically locked on level nine, while a spotter also remained on level one, South Metropolitan Health Service chief executive Paul Forden said.

In this instance, the mechanics failed and the spotter observed the movement within 90 seconds.

The lift moved to level two and a member of staff entered for about 30 seconds until they were taken out at level one.

After the lift was taken back to level nine, it happened again, with a second person unknowingly entering the potentially infected lift.

Mr Forden conceded the system should not fail in that way and said mechanical experts were looking into it.

He said the lift was most recently successfully tested last Friday.

“It was not a human error, it was a technical fault, which is really frustrating,” Mr Forden said.

The lift at Fiona Stanley Hospital was tested last week.

One of the crew members remains in ICU in a serious but stable condition, but he is expected to soon join the other two ill people in the respiratory ward.

The remaining 17 people on-board the vessel, which is at Fremantle Port, will be tested for coronavirus later on Tuesday and authorities are expecting more cases to emerge.

Eight out of 20 crew are currently symptomatic.

Mr Cook said his preference was that they were all managed on-board the ship.

The vessel has crew who are mostly from India and the Philippines.

The ship left Singapore on July 18 but had previously docked in Indonesia on July 8.

Although three people had tested positive, one of them will be counted in Wednesday’s figures.

Since this incident was sparked, the WA government has been pushing for the Commonwealth to tighten protocols regarding ships coming from Indonesia, as was done previously with the Philippines.

Western Australia has 11 active cases, including one in hotel quarantine and eight from the ship BBC California.

Mr Cook said he anticipated the health issues linked to the BBC California would be completed by mid-August.

Originally published as Covid-19 breach at hospital forces two unvaccinated workers into hotel quarantine, as three crew from ship test positive