Coronavirus Australia: Three sources to blame for 99pc of cases in Victoria’s second wave

Nearly all of the COVID cases in Victoria’s second wave can be linked to the infection sources that emerged in June.

Lindsay Grayson gives evidence at the inquiry into the hotel quarantine program in Melbourne on Monday.

Private security guards were told they didn’t need to wear personal protective equipment when dealing with returned travellers as part of their training for Victoria’s disastrous hotel quarantine program that has been linked to the second wave of the virus.

Giving evidence to the inquiry into the hotel quarantine program, Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at Austin Health, said he had completed the same training model as that given to security guards and it had not included any information on PPE.

“When it came to the crucial section about PPE, there was no information other than to seek advice from your local authorities,” Professor Grayson said on Monday.

Expert testimony to the inquiry also linked more than 99 per cent of the cases in the state’s coronavirus second wave to just three clusters that emerged after most of the virus had disappeared from the community.

In other evidence, counsel appearing for a security company employed as part of the hotel quarantine program dismissed as “rumour and innuendo’’ suggestions guards had sex with guests.

The $3m inquiry overseen by former judge Jennifer Coate was told infection control training undertaken by security staff advised that mask wearing did not reduce the risk of virus transmission. Professor Grayson said he assumed the training was geared towards providing general advice to the community instead of being specifically targeted towards people working in infection control.

The inquiry was shown a slide from the federal health training module that said: “Masks are important in health and aged-care settings; for exact recommendations on when to wear these, you should check with your workplace or public health unit.”

Another slide from the training module said the statement “Everyone should be wearing a mask to prevent COVID-19” was false.

Professor Grayson said the slide was a good example of why people working in healthcare would be confused by the training module.

“I think clearly this is misleading for healthcare or quarantine staff if they thought they didn’t need to wear a mask, when I would consider it crucial if in likely contact with a potentially infectious patient,” he said.

Face masks have been mandatory in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire since July 23, with the face-covering order applying to the whole of Victoria since August 3.

Arthur Moses SC, who is representing Unified Security, showed the inquiry advice offered to hotel quarantine security that said guards didn’t need to wear PPE when in the hotel lobby, on the quarantine floor and when making doorway visits if a distance of 1.5m could be maintained.

He said this included taking guests for fresh air and delivering UberEats to their rooms.

Under cross-examination by Mr Moses, Professor Grayson agreed that the advice was “inappropriate.”

Mr Moses, who was granted leave to appear, dismissed as “rumour and innuendo” allegations that guards had sex with returning travellers.

When he asked whether interactions between guards and guests such as sharing elevators and taking them for fresh air could see transmission of the virus, Professor Grayson said: “Yes, less so if they were wearing appropriate PPE.”

The inquiry is examining whether every coronavirus case in Victoria’s second wave, which has claimed about 300 lives, is linked to infection control breaches at the hotel quarantine program.

Infectious disease expert from The Doherty Institute Ben Howden said genomic sequencing had linked more than 99 per cent of the cases to one cluster and two network transmissions, which refers to a cluster and its sub-clusters, “Such that all current cases bar a few are from those transmission networks and that cluster.”

He said transmission network two was responsible for “the majority of cases we’ve seen since early June”, with most other virus clusters “all essentially disappeared from the community in Victoria” by early May.

Genomic sequencing could help identify the origins of coronavirus cases, with genetic code mutations acting as “a passport stamp” that allowed scientists to trace the origins of a virus.

In his statement, Professor Howden said confirming the link to hotel quarantine would require epidemiological data not held by The Doherty Institute.

In his opening remarks on Monday, counsel assisting, Tony Neal QC, said identifying who was accountable for the bungled program would be a fundamental question of the inquiry.

Despite identifying Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions as well as Emergency Management Victoria as key players, Mr Neal said it was unclear who was in overall command of the program. “There were within Operation Soteria [hotel quarantine] multiple command structures within departments and between departments,” he said. “There is material suggesting that for some participants in the program, it was not clear who was in overall command of the operation.”

Mr Neal said the hotel quarantine was established in 48 hours and the “lines of supervision and accountability” became blurred in the rush to get the program up and running in time for the arrival of returning travellers.