Coronavirus: Victorian health chief ‘agnostic’ over Cedar Meats case

Brett Sutton’s comments contrast with those of Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.

Cedar Meats in Melbourne has been the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak. Picture: Getty

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer says he is “agnostic” about whether a COVID-19 case detected in a worker at Melbourne abattoir Cedar Meats on April 2 is linked to the 84 subsequent cases attributed to a cluster at the facility.

Professor Brett Sutton’s comments during a Victorian parliament Public Accounts and Estimates hearing on Tuesday contrast with those of Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who last week ridiculed the notion that the April 2 case was related, saying: “Unless the virus got into a car itself and went to Cedar Meats, there is no way that virus could have been connected to that worksite.”

Professor Sutton told the hearing the April 2 worker had twice told Department of Health and Human Services contact tracers that he had not attended work at Cedar Meats in the four weeks prior to being diagnosed.

However, Professor Sutton said this claim had not been verified with Cedar Meats management.

“We confirmed twice with that individual, who was absolutely clear that he had not spent any time, either as an infectious person, or in a relevant period for potentially acquiring it,” Professor Sutton said.

He said this information was not checked with Cedar Meats.

“No. The Health Records Act really places a very strong obligation on us not to share private medical information with anyone else … but by all accounts, we had no information from that individual that would require us to contact his workplace,” Professor Sutton said.

Asked whether the April 2 case was completely unrelated to the later cases found in Cedar Meats workers from April 24, Professor Sutton said: “No, I'm agnostic to the relationship of the April 2 case.”

“What I do understand is that that individual provided information that meant that there were no close contacts to follow up in the workplace, and that there was no suspicion that that individual had acquired it at the workplace, but in terms of the hypothesis of how that case might be related to later cases in the cluster, I'm meant to be agnostic,” Professor Sutton said.

“We need to be open-minded about the networks of friends or family, or more broadly in the community, that might have meant that that individual is related to someone who also through some chain of transmission that we haven't identified, also relates to other workers, who later introduced it into the facility.”

Cedar Meats not directly contacted until April 27

Professor Sutton and Ms Mikakos were asked about DHHS’ failure to contact Cedar Meats directly until April 27, after a worker was diagnosed with COVID-19 on April 24.

Ms Mikakos said the infected worker had nominated Brisbane headquartered labour hire firm Labour Solutions Australia as his employer.

“That company then informed Cedar Meats on that same day,” she said.

“There is then a subsequent case, identified on the 26th of April, after an employee attended Sunshine Hospital with a workplace injury. That is on a Sunday, as I recall.

“The facility is closed because it's the Anzac Day weekend, and so the department has contacted Cedar Meats the next morning, on Monday the 27th of April, to have that, to begin that investigation about a potential cluster, because they then made the connection of two workers on the 24th and the 26th being individuals both working at the meatworks.”

Asked whether there was a gap in the system given the department notified an employer not directly responsible for the site at which the employee was working, Professor Sutton said: “If we had been informed of the site where the worker had worked, by that employee, we would have followed up directly with that site.

“He gave the name of the labour hire firm as his employer, and did not declare that he worked at Cedar Meats.”

Nationals MP and PAEC member Danny O’Brien responded: “Wouldn’t you think the first question would be, OK it’s a labour hire firm, where do you actually work?”

“No. We were given the name of his employer, who we followed up with,” Professor Sutton said.

“So Brisbane seemed logical,” Mr O’Brien quipped.

Co-workers in boning room ‘not considered close contacts’ by DHHS

Professor Sutton earlier revealed that the workers who had been operating alongside the worker diagnosed with COVID-19 in the boning room at Cedar Meats were not considered close contacts, because the worker said they were not.

“Case two, who was the first case in the boning room did not identify any close contacts,” Professor Sutton said.

PAEC Deputy Chair and Liberal MP Richard Riordan — who represents the rural seat of Polwarth, in Victoria’s southwest — expressed scepticism.

“Excuse me, Professor Sutton, I don't know whether you've been in a boning room. I've got the largest one in Victoria I think in my electorate. I'm a regular visitor,” Mr Riordan said.

“You cannot be in a boning room by yourself. It is a room of up to, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 people at very close quarters.

“We know internationally boning rooms and meat processing plants have been problematic.

“How could anyone for a minute not think that they would need to contact work colleagues of the people in the boning room?”

Professor Sutton conceded he had not personally spoken to the April 24 worker.

“But the contact tracers will go through a very rigorous and standard process of interviewing individuals who've been identified as positive,” he said.

Pressed on why the contact tracers had not asked questions about other people in the boning room, Professor Sutton said: “You can't give information, private medical information about a confirmed case with a disease.”

Mr Riordan hit back: “Well in a democracy we don’t tend to lock everybody up and tell them to stay home and close businesses. These are extraordinary times,” he said.

“I think most people in a workplace, particularly a boning room workplace, would expect to be contacted.”

Professor Sutton responded: “That individual was spoken to. He identified working separately from others in the boning room on a machine that was separate to his colleagues,” he said.

Mr Riordan said it was impossible to be in isolation in a boning room.

“We're getting fobbed off with this bureaucratic rhetoric,” he said.

“We’re told we have virus detectives, and the people of Victoria need to know that those virus detectives aren’t just taking everything on face value, and quite frankly, on face value, a boning room is an obvious spot to test fellow workers.”

Abattoir denies texting ALP amid outbreak

Cedar Meats management earlier denied texting Labor MPs ahead of a DHHS decision not to name their facility.

The Australian last week revealed that when one of the founders of Cedar Meats died in 2010, three MPs who are now part of the Andrews government paid tribute with condolence motions in parliament, with one describing Samir Kairouz as “more than a brother to me”.

Samir’s brother Pierre Kair­ouz made a $15,000 ­donation to the Victorian ALP on the company’s behalf ahead of Labor winning government in 2014, and in May 2018, the ­Andrews government’s then agriculture minister, Jaala Pulford, announced the Kairouz family’s Meatco abattoir in Mildura would receive $2m in regional jobs funding.

Cedar Meats General Manager Tony Kairouz was also a member of the Victorian ALP from 1993 until 2017, when his membership lapsed.

Simone Gandur, the communications consultant hired last week by Cedar Meats to act as their spokeswoman, was recommended to the company by Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions head of communications Tess Hughes.

Ms Gandur is also an ALP member, who worked on two campaigns for former federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Over the weekend of May 2 and 3, the Andrews government refused to name Cedar Meats, which was then linked to 15 COVID-19 cases, despite naming a northern suburbs school linked to one inactive case.

Responding to questions asked of Premier Daniel Andrews in PAEC on Tuesday, Ms Gandur said in a statement: “Cedar Meats management denies that it texted any Labor MPs about not naming it during the outbreak and suggests that anyone with evidence should bring it forward.”

Asked by Mr Riordan whether his government had been influenced in its decision not to name Cedar Meats by “close Labor Party associations” with the Kairouz family, Mr Andrews said: “No”.

Asked whether his office had “been advised that Cedar Meats were texting MPs to plead with them not to disclose the business name, when the cluster story first broke”, Mr Andrews said: “No”.

“So no one has advised you at all, none of your MPs received a text or advice?” Mr Riordan asked.

“I have had no such advice. None whatsoever,” Mr Andrews said.

Mr Riordan asked Mr Andrews about Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton's interview with 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell on April 30, when Mitchell asked Professor Murphy whether the decision to name a business or facility at the centre of a COVID-19 facility was his decision, or a government decision, to which Professor Sutton responded, “Look, it's really both.”

Asked whether he agreed that it was a joint decision of the government and the Chief Health Officer, Mr Andrews said: “Well it’s certainly not a decision that I'm involved in.”

“It’s not a decision that I think any minister is necessarily involved in,” Mr Andrews said.

“You can put that quote, that comment to the Chief Health Officer when he appears before you, but those sorts of decisions are in my experience, both in my current role and previous roles that I've been honoured to play, they are matters for the public health team, and they go through a process and they make very difficult judgments.

“Will it help in contact tracing if you name the business? Will it help you protect public health, if you name the business? There's been for instance an example of a GP clinic, and that was appropriate, otherwise people might well conclude that it was their GP clinic, when in fact it wasn't.”

Mr Riordan hit back, saying: “Premier, would it interest you to know that Cedar Meats had many contractors through the premises and many came through my electorate and that's the livestock transport industry?”

“Now, those people in that industry have gone right throughout the state of Victoria, having not had any warning nor all the farms and communities that those workers went to,” Mr Riordan said.

“Had they been notified publicly that they had been in a premises with a disease, a potentially much worse situation could have been avoided. Does that concern you?”

Mr Andrews said every outbreak needed to be “managed appropriately”.

“Every outbreak needs to be managed as carefully as possible, and it’s my view, the view of the Chief (Medical) Officer of the Commonwealth (Brendan Murphy), as well as the view of the Prime Minister, that these issues have been handled as well as they possibly can be,” Mr Andrews said.

“Brendan Murphy in the national cabinet meeting last week, on a number of occasions made the point that in his view, and he's been doing this for a while, (Cedar Meats) was ‘a model example’ of how to deal with an outbreak of this kind.”

Mr Riordan replied: “I think the growing list of people with the illness is probably evidence that that may not be the case.”

Of Victoria's 17 new cases on Tuesday, eight have been linked to Cedar Meats, including six in workers and two in close contacts.

The total number of cases linked to Cedar Meats has now reached 85.

Professor Sutton said he was not surprised to see six new cases in Cedar Meats workers despite the facility being closed more than a week ago, because it was not unusual to see positive results for up for a fortnight after exposure.

“The entire workforce has been in quarantine so the risk to others is minimal,” Professor Sutton said.

Professor Sutton said there were no further test results outstanding for Cedar Meats workers following the six positive results on Tuesday.