Coronavirus: Failed quarantine cost $195m, says Jennifer Coate

Hotel quarantine inquiry recommends governance body, 24-hour police presence in interim report.

The Stamford Plaza in Melbourne, one of Victoria’s quarantine hotels. Picture: Wayne Taylor

A sweeping overhaul of Victoria’s bungled coronavirus quarantine scheme that would force some returned travellers to be fitted with monitoring devices and to self-isolate at home, while ­hotels would be guarded by police, has been recommended to the Andrews government.

Seeking to address the deficiencies that contributed to the state’s disastrous second wave, the Coate inquiry has revealed the scheme’s cost has ballooned out to $195m, and its proposal for a dedicated salaried workforce at each quarantine facility is set to add to the wages bill,

Repudiating the state government’s approach of “shared acc­ount­ability” by ministers and bureaucrats, the inquiry proposes that one cabinet-approved ­department and minister be acc­ountable for the program, which would be overseen by a new quarantine governing body.

The inquiry had been scheduled to release its entire findings into the hotel quarantine debacle, but the final report was ­delayed after new evidence emerged after public hearings concluded, which chair Jennifer Coate described on Friday as “most regrettable”.

Despite a “relatively low” 236 positive COVID-19 cases in the hotel quarantine program, Ms Coate said “breaches of containment in the program in May and June led to the second wave of COVID-19 cases in Victoria, with devastating social and economic consequences for the state”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

The breaches by private security guards have been blamed for the outbreaks that resulted in almost 800 deaths, and Ms Coate recommends dedicated salaried personnel staff be deployed at quarantine hotels.

Changes implemented by the state government have seen a 24/7 police presence at hotels and use of Corrections officers. She made no reference to the use of Australian Defence Force personnel.

While the former judge did not explicitly rule out the use of private security, her proposal for salaried staff will reduce their presence, given most security guards are ­casuals, unless employment arr­angements are changed.

Under the home quarantine proposal, Ms Coate urges the government to consider electronic monitoring using smart phone technology and, more controversially, ankle or wrist monitors.

Given the public health risks associated with noncompliance, she recommended a new offence to apply to a person knowingly entering a place where a person has been directed to home quarantine, unless that person has been authorised by the Chief Health Officer.

Ms Coate recommended clear lines of governance with an onsite manager required to ensure that staff working onsite understood their responsibilities.

As well, officials running the program should keep electronic records to ensure timely sharing of information, as well as co-operating fully with the commonwealth.

“Each person entering quarantine should be assessed so that their individual needs and clinical risk factors are understood as completely as possible to assist in the maintenance of their health and wellbeing while in quarantine,” she said.

“To facilitate such assessments, the proactivity with which information is sought prior to the arrival of people into quarantine, and the quality of such information, must be considerably improved. Commonwealth and state agencies need to create effective and timely information-sharing arrangements to ensure that good-quality information is available to relevant Victorian officials as early as possible.

Ms Coate further recommended a contact-tracing unit be embedded at each quarantine ­facility.

Mr Andrews said he would consider each of the recommendations over the weekend.

Opposition leader Michael O’Brien said the inquiry needed to recall witnesses whose testimony had been undermined by the new evidence, describing the bungled program as the biggest policy failing in the state’s history.

“A $10m inquiry has found that if a government is going to operate a quarantine program, they should do it with trained people. Anybody on the street could have come to the same conclusion,” he said