Andrews downplays replacement of quarantine workers with police

Daniel Andrews has downplayed revelations that hotel quarantine floor monitors from the company Spotless were replaced with police, claiming the program is “changing and evolving”.

Police and medical staff in the Novotel in Melbourne’s Southbank. Picture: Aaron Francis

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has sought to downplay revelations that hotel quarantine floor monitors from cleaning and catering company Spotless were stood down mid-shift and replaced with police on Wednesday amid infection control concerns, claiming the overhauled program is “changing and evolving”.

Victoria ceased receiving international arrivals in late June, as it emerged that a second wave of coronavirus cases now linked to at least 781 deaths, more than 18,000 infections and a crippling three month lockdown had been sparked by infection control breaches at two of the Andrews government’s quarantine hotels.

However, the Grand Chancellor and Brady hotels in Melbourne’s CBD have more recently been set up as quarantine centres to house vulnerable, largely coronavirus-positive people who cannot isolate at home, under the management of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, with assistance from Alfred Health, Corrections Victoria, Victoria Police and Spotless.

The Grand Chancellor ceased being used as a quarantine hotel on September 14 and the Brady was replaced by the Novotel South Wharf on Tuesday.

Late on Wednesday a DJCS spokeswoman confirmed that Spotless staff at the Novotel “health hotel” had been replaced mid-shift by Victoria Police members.

The intervention followed Nine Newspapers drawing the state government’s attention to the concerns of a health worker involved in the program, who warned The Age she feared the practices of Spotless staff could lead to further outbreaks which could trigger a third wave of coronavirus in Victoria.

It also followed The Australian’s confirmation on Tuesday that nine staff members working at the Brady and Grand Chancellor had been infected since late July, including a staff member from each of the Department of Health and Human Services and Victoria Police, two Alfred Health staff members, and five Spotless workers.

Asked on Thursday why the Spotless workers had been stood down mid-shift, Mr Andrews said the Spotless staff were not security guards, referring to a statement by Alfred Health, despite the fact that the scheme is managed by DJCS.

In the statement, Alfred Health said: “Alfred Health’s current role is to deliver clinical services, infection prevention and control expertise, as well as pathogen cleaning.”

“Spotless, a long-term contract partner to Alfred Health for non-clinical services, has supported the health service in the mandatory quarantine program,” the statement said.

“They have provided specialised cleaning and, until Wednesday 30 September, customer service and floor monitor roles.

“Spotless staff were not employed in security roles in hotel quarantine. As part of their induction process, Spotless staff undertake extensive PPE training prior to commencement of duties.

“There have been no outbreaks of COVID-19 at hotels where Alfred Health has been involved, and we thank our staff who are working tirelessly in these changed environments to protect the community.”

Mr Andrews sought to justify the involvement of Spotless workers, saying he did not “think anyone expects members of Victoria Police to be cleaning rooms”.

“So you’ve got a company that is employed to do that work, and you’ve got then Alfred Health, who are providing health care obviously, welfare, some of those other important functions.”

Asked why Victoria Police had replaced Spotless workers mid-shift, Mr Andrew said: “As I understand it, there are a series of different points at which the program is changing and evolving and I couldn‘t, for instance, as I stand here now say to you that that is the last change.

“There is a program to transition, and I suppose the best example of that is that we have gone from Grand Chancellor and the Brady, the Brady is now closed, as I am advised this morning, as part of that program.”

Mr Andrews was unable to say why the Brady had been replaced by the Novotel.

Of the nine hotel quarantine staff infected, a DJCS spokeswoman said one of the staff members had likely acquired the virus through an aged-care facil­ity, another through public housing, and a third via a cluster among Victoria Police, with at least seven of the cases “assessed as most likely occurring from community transmission”.

The spokeswoman said five of the nine had contact with known household cases, while the final case “was considered to be likely community transmission in a hotspot”.

On Wednesday, the hotel quarantine inquiry confirmed it would be “making further enquiries regarding the operation of the Brady and Grand Chancellor Hotels” in light of reporting by The Australian and other outlets regarding the staff cases.

Premier can’t say why Spotless workers were taken out mid-shift

Asked whether he seriously expected people to believe the replacement of Spotless workers mid-shift was part of a planned transition, Mr Andrews said: “I can‘t provide you any further details than I have. I’m more than happy to ask the question for you and provide you with what further information I have got.”

Asked about the health worker’s comments to Nine Newspapers that she feared work practices among Spotless staff could spark a third wave — and that “when (international) flights start again, (Victoria) will be screwed” — Mr Andrews said: “There is an unnamed health worker. She is entitled, he, whoever that might be, to have a view, but that’s not the advice that’s been provided to me, in terms of training and in terms of the terms under which those people are employed.”

‘I’m confident we’ve learned from mistakes’: Andrews

Mr Andrews claimed he was confident his government had learnt from mistakes made in hotel quarantine the first time around, and that similar mistakes were not still being perpetuated.

“Yes, I am,” he said.

Asked how he could have that confidence, the Premier attacked the anonymity of the health worker, who Nine Newspapers said had chosen not to be named out of fear she could lose her job.

“I have got advice,” Mr Andrews said. “When people provide me advice they actually put their name to it, which I think is really a very important thing.

“I am not having a go at anyone who decides to speak to a journalist — that’s everyone’s right — but I don’t think there’s an equivalence between a comment, as you have taken me to, and the advice that I’ve got from various departments and agencies.

“Again, I am confident that arrangements we have in place are vastly different to those which we have all become very well aware of through the work of the board, but I can‘t for a moment stand here and say that the model that operates right now wouldn’t change again, there wouldn’t be further refinements and changes based on practice, based on the recommendations of the board, based on whatever decisions national cabinet makes, for instance, about who should go into hotel quarantine.

“All of those things are not yet settled, but I’m confident that that’s a secure environment and people are doing the very best that they can. The reason I say that, and to your question, is that’s the advice that I’ve got.”

International flights won’t return until after inquiry reports

Mr Andrews said international arrivals would not return to Victoria until after retired judge Jennifer Coate has handed down the findings of her inquiry into hotel quarantine, due on November 6.

“I think it’s only fair and reasonable that we wait and see what the findings are, and again, I’m not wanting to pre-empt what they might be, or to, kind of, in any way influence that, it’s an independent process, but I think it’s highly unlikely that they won’t go directly to some of these issues, and I think that will mean we, we can have even more confidence in whatever model we set up, that it comes with the benefit of having examined 290,000 pages of documents, having heard from many, many witnesses,” he said.

‘We work hard to get accurate, timely answers’: Andrews

It took four days for the Andrews government to provide The Australian with an answer to the question of how many hotel quarantine workers had been infected with coronavirus since the scheme was overhauled in late July.

The Australian first put questions to Mr Andrews at his press conference on Saturday, following a Saturday Paper article revealing the government had received 12 WorkSafe reports of infections in hotel quarantine workers since July 27.

A DJCS spokeswoman provided a written response on Saturday afternoon, stating: “One positive case can result in multiple WorkSafe notices from various organisations involved, so if you have 12 notifications that doesn’t necessarily mean there are 12 positive cases.”

She also stated that no DJCS staff had contracted the virus but provided no answer to the questions of how many hotel quarantine workers had been infected, and who their employers were.

After several follow-up emails and calls to both the DJCS spokeswoman and the Premier’s office, and after The Australian put a further question to the Premier at his Monday press conference, DJCS finally provided confirmation of the nine infections on Tuesday.

Asked on Thursday whether the four days of stonewalling was good enough, Mr Andrews said: “I don’t draft Department of Justice statements, and it’s always been my practice, if I take a matter on notice here, on any given day, me and my team work as hard as we can to get you the answer in both accurate terms, and in as timely a fashion as possible.”

“In terms of my approach to these matters, I think that’s very well understood, and I would expect that others had the same, the same approach. Be accurate, and be timely. That’s is my view,” Mr Andrews said.

Andrews, Cheng ‘not aware of’ any community infections from overhauled hotel quarantine

Asked whether there had been any infections in families of hotel quarantine workers or other community infections linked to the nine cases, Mr Andrews said: “Not that I‘m aware of.”

“I’ll be more than happy to ask the public health team to have a look at that for you,” Mr Andrews said.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said he was not aware of any community infections linked to the overhauled hotel quarantine program either, but would need to check.

“I‘m not aware of that. I’ll have to get back to you on the details of that,” Professor Cheng said.

Professor Cheng said the nine infections were “not part of one big outbreak, because they’re in different times and different places, but I understand that the investigation is ongoing.”

He said genomic sequencing was underway to help determine any links between those cases and others in the Victorian community.

Asked how Victorian authorities could have made the initial assessment that all nine cases has most likely been contracted in environments outside hotel quarantine, Professor Cheng said: “I understand that some of them live together, and that the transmission has occurred within the household, in that setting.”