Australia’s new purpose-built quarantine facilities won’t be fast-tracked despite Omicron outbreak
Australia’s new purpose-built quarantine facilities won’t be fast-tracked despite the Omicron outbreak and most beds won’t be ready until next year.
The first of Australia’s new purpose-built quarantine facilities could be ready by the end of the year but it’s unlikely most of the new beds being constructed across the country will be available in time to assist with the Omicron threat.
The Federal Government is funding several projects in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia with thousands of beds under construction.
As fears about the Omicron variant grow, some are disappointed the quarantine beds are not ready to go as a number of experts have been calling for them to be built since early this year.
While some have questioned whether the facilities would become expensive white elephants, the emergence of Omicron has again seen authorities forced to isolate travellers just weeks after some states ditched their mandatory hotel quarantine requirements.
Australia has also blocked travellers from certain countries from entering the country and delayed the return of international students and other visa holders in what is expected to be another blow to the country’s economy.
Deakin University epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett said Omicron showed there would be a need for purpose-built quarantine in the future.
“The argument has always been there would be a long-term role for it when new variants of concern emerged,” she said.
In particular she said purpose-built quarantine was safer than hotel quarantine especially as more infectious strains emerged.
She said it allowed for people to be accommodated safely in the event a new variant emerged, until the threat was better understood, exactly as is happening now in Australia.
“That’s when we would want these facilities,” she said.
Unfortunately the million-dollar facilities being built in Australia are not yet completed and are not yet able to assist with the current Omicron threat.
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Instead Australia continues to lean on its hotel quarantine system and the “gold standard” facility at Howard Springs, which is a repurposed former mining camp located in the Northern Territory.
The only Commonwealth-run quarantine facility, Howard Springs, is currently operating at half capacity with about 998 people isolating there, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s office confirmed.
At best, Australia would see another 500 beds come online in Queensland by the end of this year, with at least 1250 more beds due to be completed in Victoria, Western Australia and at a second facility in Queensland, early next year.
A spokesman for Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said it was not possible to fast-track any of the developments amid the Omicron outbreak due to the complex design of the buildings. He said the estimated time frame for each project was at least six to seven months.
“Each room has got to have a separate ventilation system because they could be used to hold Covid patients,” he said.
“We’ve always been conservative in our delivery times (for this reason).
“We’re essentially building the equivalent of a hotel in a different form.”
Meanwhile, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told news.com.au that NSW was not considering any purpose-built quarantine facilities despite the fears around Omicron.
“NSW has just never had any interest in running a permanent system,” Mr Hazzard said.
“Permanent quarantine would take away a lot of health and police staff, from doing their other jobs, on a permanent basis and it’s not something we are interested in doing.”
Asked whether the emergence of a more infectious strain could see NSW change its policy, Mr Hazzard said, “I’m not going to start hypothesising, we deal with the issues as they arise as we always have done, and manage it appropriately with community support.”
Prof Bennett said the emergence of the Delta strain last year, which coincided with a number of quarantine breaches, should have encouraged authorities to accelerate their plans for purpose-built facilities.
“(This Omicron outbreak) would have been the perfect first test,” she said.
Prof Bennett said if Omicron was more infectious than Delta then purpose-built facilities would be better than hotel quarantine.
“They don’t have rooms facing on to common corridors (for example) and hotel quarantine will be even more difficult to manage well if there is a more infectious variant.”
The facilities also make it possible to separate high-risk people, such as those who have tested positive or travelled on the same plane as positive cases, from those who are at lower risk – who could instead use hotel quarantine.
Prof Bennett said the risk of new variants would remain until Covid infections around the world were brought under control.
“If it’s not Omicron then it will be something else,” she said.
Even prior to the emergence of Omicron, Covid-19 cases were on the rise in places like Europe and this increases the risk of mutations and more variants.
“Transition to living with the virus means you also have to transition with the virus, and however it mutates, until globally there is enough downward pressure on transmission that stops the production of variants.”
Queensland
The state has two projects in the pipeline.
The most advanced development is a facility being built on private land by Wagner Corporation in Toowoomba, which will be leased to the Queensland Government.
The first 500 beds at the 1000-bed Wellcamp facility are expected to be delivered by the end of this year, a spokesman for the Queensland Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning told news.com.au.
“First stage site works are continuing, with 64 of 130 accommodation units now on site and in position,” he said.
A separate 1000-bed project funded by the Federal Government at Pinkenba, will see another 500 beds completed by April 2022.
A spokesman for Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said this project was on schedule.
Victoria
The Commonwealth-funded facility at Mickleham was originally expected to be completed by the end of this year but Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria (CQV) now says it won’t be online until early next year.
“The Victorian Quarantine Hub at Mickleham will also open in early 2022 with an initial 250 beds and expand to 500 and 1000 beds shortly after,” a CQV spokesman said.
Four hotels will also continue to be used for quarantine in Victoria next year including the Mercure Welcome, Novotel Ibis, Pullman on Swanston, and Mantra Epping.
Western Australia
The Western Australian facility is being built on Commonwealth-owned land within the Bullsbrook Training Area, north of Perth.
The first 500 beds at the 1000-bed facility are expected to be ready by the end of March 2022.
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