Coronavirus: Melbourne quarantine hotel’s toxic waste stored in residential unit block

Hotel quarantine linen is being stored in a carpark accessed by more than 450 residents of a CBD apartment block.

Staff at the Novotel/Ibis on 399 Londsdale St in Melbourne, which is next to a residential block where the hotel’s quarantine waste is stored. Picture: Aaron Francis

Hotel quarantine linen marked “Terminal/Positive Cases” is being stored in an underground carpark accessed by more than 450 residents of a Melbourne CBD apartment complex.

The shocking revelation has led the 408 Lonsdale St owners’ corporation to consider legal action over what it says are dozens of daily actions by staff at the neighbouring Novotel/Ibis Melbourne Central hotel, who are putting residents at risk of Covid-19 infection.

The concerns follow three ­resets of Victoria’s troubled hotel quarantine program, leaks out of which have so far caused two lockdowns and 801 deaths.

It comes as Victorians contend with their third hotel quarantine-generated lockdown – this time sparked by an outbreak emanating from an Adelaide hotel – and as the nation’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly confirmed a subsequent instance of Covid trans­mission within a Perth hotel was the 21st such breach in Australia.

Since March 30, the 408 Lonsdale St owners’ corporation has been locked in an increasingly heated dispute with the 399 Little Lonsdale St hotel’s general manager over a car park space shared by both buildings, which back onto one another.

Bins containing linen from the Novotel/Ibis quarantine hotel stored in a residential carpark. Source: Supplied

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

The hotel initially tried to seek an assurance from the 408 Lonsdale St owners’ corporation that they would not allow residents or subcontractors to access the area without prior agreement, but the owners’ corporation managers have refused, arguing the hotel has no right to use the carpark for Covid quarantine purposes.

The moved bins containing quarantine hotel materials. Source: Supplied

On April 23, an owners’ corporation managers’ employee was detained by Victoria Police hotel security while conducting an inspection, with the hotel manager emailing the owners’ corporation to say the staff member had “caused quite a concern for Vic Pol and the authorities as they were considered trespassing and posing a potential risk to the hotel quarantine program”.

The owners’ corporation manager hit back via email three days later, saying his staff “should not be detained by the police for doing their job, and this has occurred because the hotel has misinformed the police as to the boundaries of the two buildings involved”.

Amid escalating concerns from residents over interactions with hotel staff and the storage of ­materials including yellow wheelie bins containing medical waste that was sealed only with masking tape, the owners’ corporation manager wrote to the hotel manager on May 17.

“The hotel is not entitled to store Covid-19 materials anywhere within the boundaries of 408 Lonsdale St,” the manager wrote. “To do so would require a unanimous resolution of the ­owners’ corporation. The current storing of quarantine materials marked ‘Terminal/Positive Cases’ must cease, and these must be ­removed immediately.”

The apartment block on 408 Lonsdale Street which shares a carpark with the Novotel on Little Lonsdale Street which is being used as a hotel quarantine for returning travellers. Picture: Aaron Francis

The manager attached a photograph of the linen and the yellow medical waste bins.

The hotel manager responded less than two hours later with the word: “Noted.”

In response to another point in the same email stating that the storage of quarantine materials was a breach of owners’ corporation rules, the hotel manager wrote: “We may need to seek further clarification on the term ‘Covid-related material’, and if it is required we will meet any of the obligations. For now I have had the trolleys removed.”

But photographs taken in the carpark this week show the trolleys and bins have merely been moved to one side, with temporary fencing erected around them.

The owners’ corporation manager also raised the issue of his staff member’s “outrageous detention”, requesting an apology over the treatment of the man, who he said was “visibly upset as he was detained by armed police”.

The hotel manager replied that hotel staff were “on high alert due to regular security breaches and thefts from the carpark”.

“We apologise to your team member for being questioned by police but feel that if we had have known that he was coming that may have prevented the issue from arising,” she wrote.

In a letter sent to the hotel manager on May 13, lawyers acting for the owners’ corporation also highlighted “grave concerns” over the risks posed to “health and quiet enjoyment of their properties”, and to the owners’ corporation’s insurance policy.

“We are instructed that personnel who are involved in the hotel quarantine program, either as security or hotel staff, are ­frequently accessing the lifts to exit the carpark and are walking through the common lobby areas of the building on their way to or from the Novotel building,” the lawyers wrote in the letter.

“This is extremely concerning … not only are the residents restricted from accessing common property in the carpark, but they are also then subjected to a greater risk of exposure to Covid-19 as these personnel are getting in common lifts, potentially touching common surfaces such as door handles, etc. Such access must cease immediately.”

A Novotel/Ibis Melbourne Central spokesman on Wednesday said the carpark was “privately owned by the hotel”.

“The property is a quarantine facility operated by Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria. All health and safety protocols are diligently followed and adhere to the Covid-safe guidelines of the local health authority,” the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for CQV said all staff followed strict infection prevention and control protocols while working, and participated in a mandatory testing regime.

“Due to these strengthened infection control processes and the fact all staff are vaccinated, the public health advice is consistent across the hotel quarantine program that CQV staff arriving and leaving from hotel quarantine sites do not pose an increased infection risk to the public,” the spokeswoman said. “All rubbish disposal and linen services at quarantine hotels are conducted under (infection control) rules.”

The Australian understands that CQV does not believe the linen poses a risk of aerosol transmission because it has been bagged inside the hotel in line with in­fection control protocols.