Calls for changes to Australia’s hotel quarantine arrangements as mutant coronavirus strains spread
There are calls for Australia to consider new options for its coronavirus response as one problem continues to plague the country.
As Australia grapples with yet another breach of hotel quarantine, experts say it’s time the system is changed.
The announcement overnight of another hotel quarantine worker in Victoria becoming infected with the coronavirus has threatened the start of the Australian Open and reignited discussion about whether Australia is taking the right approach.
Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely told news.com.au the emergence of more infectious coronavirus variants from UK, South Africa and Brazil meant it’s more likely people would be arriving in Australia with the disease.
“These people are also more infectious, and if there is a doubling of the number this also means a tripling of the risk,” he said.
“For example, imagine that 100 infected people used to arrive at our border per month last year, and 2 per cent of these people would result in the virus getting out of quarantine (equal to two breaches).
“But this year, because of higher case numbers overseas, 200 people arrive at our border infected with a (virus that has) 50 per cent increased transmissibility to give six breaches – a tripling of the breach rate.”
However, Prof Blakely said everyone, himself included, needed to stop playing the blame game.
“What we have learned is this virus is so sneaky it’s going to get out,” he said.
However, if Australia wants to continue to accept people from overseas, Prof Blakely said authorities needed to reduce the risk of the virus escaping from hotel quarantine.
“They need to be building more Howard Springs-like facilities,” he said. “There has not been any leakage of the virus from these facilities as far as I’m aware.”
One of the advantages of the Howard Springs facility, located on the outskirts of Darwin in the Northern Territory, is that people live in units surrounded by fresh air.
This means if the virus does escape from one of the units, it is expelled into the air and quickly dissipates.
RELATED: UK variant mutates again and may be able to evade vaccines
It was for this reason that Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s idea of converting mining camps into quarantine facilities had merit, Prof Blakely said.
He said the Federal Government should be taking leadership in this space as they have the overall authority for Australia’s border. He said as many of these facilities as possible should be built as they would be needed for the next six to 12 months.
Another advantage of specialised accommodation is that they can be located outside of major cities and this would lessen the risk of the virus spreading in highly populated areas.
Prof Blakely’s comments echo those of World Health Organisation adviser Mary-Louise McLaws, who has called for a national approach to hotel quarantine.
Professor McLaws said the Commonwealth, rather than the states and territories, should be in charge of “the most important threat to Australians”.
“I don’t understand why they’re not running it, our border is a national responsibility,” University of NSW Professor of Epidemiology told Virginia Trioli on ABC radio show Mornings.
“I know the states and territories are responsible for health, but they need national guidance.”
However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the hotel quarantine system, noting that there had only been a handful of cases that had escaped quarantine since March 31 last year.
He said the Commonwealth had contributed $243.7 million towards the Howard Springs quarantine facility and was working on getting the facility’s capacity up to 850 people.
His government is also looking at a proposal for a facility in Toowoomba in Queensland, although another proposal for Gladstone was not considered “sensible”.
“The Commonwealth is open where there are good proposals, very comprehensive proposals,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Mr Morrison said hotel quarantine remained the most effective way to deliver the scale of services Australia needed.
“The alternative is not that clear to me,” he said.
“This idea that you can replace the hotel quarantine system, bring Australians back home, manage your health agenda effectively through some other mechanism, I think we have to keep a sense of realism about this and a sense of proportion.
“211,500 people have come back, we’ve had a handful of cases that haven’t been completely contained within that.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Thursday he would consider remote facilities, but only if health experts and national cabinet suggest it.
He said he would be open to meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to see if there were “some bespoke facilities that can be built”, which could be used as emergency housing for bushfires outside of the pandemic.
“On the issue of risk, though, any facility will have to be staffed. Staff have lives. They have a family. You can put it 50 kilometres from where we are standing now or 500 kilometres, but there will be people there, too, and the virus spreads,” Mr Andrews said.
“I think geographic location alone is not necessarily the biggest issue here.”
CHANGES NECESSARY
Prof Blakely has acknowledged that even if the Commonwealth did build more national quarantine centres, there would likely still be a need for hotel quarantine.
“I would assume that we won’t be able to mobilise enough Howard Springs-like facilities to accommodate everyone who wants to come back (to Australia),” he said.
“If we could, that’s all we would use but I think hotel quarantine will have a role for at least some time.”
Given this, Prof Blakely believes that improvements must continue to be made and authorities must learn from mistakes.
“It’s a complex system and there are heaps of places where slippage can occur,” he said.
Prof Blakely believes that all hotels being used for quarantine should be assessed by air ventilation experts to ensure there is as much natural air flow as possible.
Recent coronavirus cases linked to hotel quarantine have also provided lessons.
Western Australia recently revealed that a security guard appeared to have caught the disease despite being stationed at least two doors away from the room where a positive case was staying.
The room was visited seven times in one day, including for food and flower deliveries, and authorities now believe airflow may have led to the guard being infected.
“Putting a security guard in a corridor (to ensure no one left their room) seems like a good idea,” Prof Blakely said.
But he said the incident had shown it was safer to rely on CCTV footage rather than physical security guards.
Prof Blakely also believes anyone who works in a quarantine facility should be required to wear a mask as they were still at risk of aerosol transmission.
The WA security guard had not been wearing a mask as they did not approach the door of the room and this was consistent with health directions at the time. Authorities have now changed the rules so all guards are required to wear masks.
It is also necessary for N95 masks to be worn, Prof Blakely said, as it was possible for the virus to sneak through the edges of other masks.
‘Wait and see’: Albo’s big election threat
The Prime Minister has refused to rule out a double dissolution of parliament as he faces fierce opposition to his signature housing legislation.
How woman stopped alleged getaway
A man who police allege forced a woman into his car before fleeing was stopped after another woman bravely did this.
‘Backwards’: Albo blasted over economy fears
Australia is at risk of taking “noticeable” steps backwards, with one business leader saying prominent CEOs are fearing the country is “losing” its way.