Coronavirus: Nine staff infected at two Melbourne hotels since August

Confirmation of staff cases at quarantine hotels prompts questions over whether sufficient lessons have been learnt.

Nine staff members working at two quarantine hotels in Melbourne have been infected with coronavirus since the Andrews government‘s program was overhauled and largely shut down in late July, prompting questions over whether sufficient lessons have been learnt since two clusters in security guards sparked Victoria’s second wave.

The Andrews government finally confirmed the figure on Tuesday, following days of questions from journalists and obfuscation from government media advisers after it was reported on Saturday that 12 WorkSafe reports had been made regarding infections in workers at the Brady Hotel and Grand Chancellor Hotel in Melbourne‘s CBD.

While Victoria‘s hotel quarantine program stopped taking new arrivals in June, the two hotels have since been involved in providing quarantine for vulnerable community members who cannot safely isolate at home, including residents of housing commission towers. The Grand Chancellor‘s involvement in the program ceased on September 14.

The scheme has been administered by the Andrews government‘s Department of Justice and Community Safety and Alfred Health.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman from DJCS said a total of nine people who worked at the “health hotels” had tested positive for COVID-19 since July 27.

“There are no active cases, with the last positive case in late August,” the spokeswoman confirmed.

Of the nine staff, one was a Department of Health and Human Services staff member, another a Victoria Police member. “Neither has been assessed as having acquired COVID-19 at a health hotel,” the spokeswoman said.

Another two staff members who contracted the virus were Alfred Health staff, while the remaining five worked for cleaning and catering company Spotless.

“Acquisition has been assessed as most likely occurring from community transmission outside of the health hotels,” the spokeswoman said of the Alfred Health and Spotless cases. How this assessment was made is not clear.

At least seven Spotless cleaning staff working the Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne’s southeast were linked to a coronavirus cluster in mid August.

The confirmation of the nine cases follows a report in The Saturday Paper that 12 government notifications had been made of positive cases among staff in the hotels, including private contractors, none of which had been publicly disclosed.

Following that report, The Australian put questions to Premier Daniel Andrews at two press conferences and followed up repeatedly with media advisers from Saturday until Tuesday before finally receiving details of how many people had tested positive and who had employed them.

Asked on Saturday whether he was concerned, given what has been learned from mistakes made in the original hotel quarantine program, that casual and contract workers from companies including Spotless were still being employed to run hotel quarantine, Mr Andrews said: “Let me come back to you as to the accuracy of that comment, I don‘t have all the detail to hand in terms of those two hotels that you referenced.

“This is a program that’s been reset,” Mr Andrews said.

“It’s a different program in that it is not dealing with international travellers, in the main … leave that with me and I will have someone come back to you.”

A DJCS spokeswoman later on Saturday provided a statement which provided no answers to the question of how many people who have worked at the Brady and Grand Chancellor hotels have tested positive for coronavirus since August 1.

Nor did the statement say whether casual and contract staff were still involved in working hotel quarantine, nor what has been done in terms of contract tracing to determine whether these people contracted the virus at work.

The spokeswoman said one positive case could have resulted in “multiple WorkSafe notices from various organisations involved, so if you have 12 notifications that doesn’t necessarily mean there are 12 positive cases,” she said on Saturday, without providing any answer to the simple question of how many positive cases there had been.

“The Department of Justice and Community Safety is strengthening infection control, professional standards and oversight across COVID-19 accommodation,” she said at the time.

“The program continues to support members of the community who are unable to isolate or quarantine at their own place of residence, including people who are homeless, fleeing domestic violence and our frontline workers.

“Staff safety is paramount, especially in health hotels where positive cases are accommodated, and we’ve strengthened processes and fast-tracked contact tracing when a positive case is identified.

“Health hotels, where confirmed cases and close contacts of confirmed cases are accommodated for their isolation period, are overseen by the Department of Justice and Community Safety, assisted by Alfred Health.

“Resident supervision at health hotels is carried out by Victoria Police. Department employed and trained Resident Support Officers are responsible for supervision at other locations.

“Under strengthened infection control standards, site exclusivity protocols and restrictions for staff movement between sites have been introduced where required.”