Coronavirus Australia: Merlino defends quarantine hotel as resident ‘livid’

Hotel storing medical waste and dirty linen from positive Covid cases in a basement accessed by 450 apartment residents is ‘following strict protocol’.

Sarah Paparo is irate residents at her apartment building are being exposed to medical waste from the neighbouring Novotel quarantine hotel. Picture: Aaron Francis

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino has defended a quarantine hotel that is storing medical waste and dirty linen from positive coronavirus cases in a basement accessed by 450 apartment residents, saying it is following strict protocol.

The Australian revealed on Thursday that the Novotel/Ibis Melbourne Central hotel had been storing medical waste and used linen marked “terminal/positive cases” in the car park under the 408 Lonsdale Street apartment complex.

While the hotel owns the strata title of some parking spaces, the apartment owners’ corporation owns an adjacent roller door exit on to a nearby laneway, a bike store, hard rubbish room, emergency exits and an alarm system, all of which ­require access to the car park.

Mr Merlino’s comments came as 408 Lonsdale Street resident Sarah Paparo said she was “livid” about the situation, with fellow residents working as food delivery drivers required to walk past hotel quarantine medical waste daily on their way to deliver meals to people all over Melbourne.

Ahead of the federal government putting forward a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for the Victorian government to sign regarding a hotel quarantine alternative to be built at the Avalon airport, Mr Merlino emphasised the “need to lower risk in hotel quarantine” through any new plan.

Asked whether it was appropriate for medical waste and dirty linen from positive cases in a quarantine hotel to be stored in a car park to which 450 residents had access, Mr Merlino said all hotels followed “very strict” infection prevention and control requirements “so all of the linen is treated as if it is positive. It is put into a bag and tied up,” he said.

Bins holding rubbish from the Novotel quarantine hotel in the joint carpark shared by the Novotel and 408 Lonsdale St apartment tower.

“That is done inside the facility. It is then made available for pick-up. Very, very strict IPC control … is followed, I have been ­assured of that.

“We operate on if you see something wrong, absolutely report it and it is actioned as soon as possible, and I can’t stress how much focus and effort goes into IPC controls within our hotel quarantine system.”

The owners’ corporation at 408 Lonsdale Street first raised concerns with the hotel regarding infection risk in mid-April. The bins were put behind temporary fencing but the car park remains a thoroughfare for hotel staff carrying medical waste and items used by positive coronavirus cases.

The moved bins containing quarantine hotel materials.

Ms Paparo, 41, who bought her studio apartment in 2018, said hotel quarantine materials simply should not be stored outside the quarantine hotel, full stop.

“There’s also been at least one report of people seeing open bags down there, but the point is, the whole idea of quarantine is it’s hived off and it’s completely separate, and you have appropriate entry and exit protocols for your people and your equipment.

“That’s not what’s happening here,” the owners’ corporation chair said.

“I’m livid. It doesn’t surprise me at all that this is happening, based on what’s been happening in Victoria and hotel quarantine.”