Coronavirus: Security guards suspected of sleeping at Sydney quarantine hotels

Private security guards employed to enforce NSW’s strict hotel quarantines have been sleeping on the job.

A private security guard seemingly asleep on the job at a Sydney hotel.

Private security guards employed to enforce NSW’s strict hotel quarantines have been sleeping on the job, potentially exposing the state to further outbreaks of the deadly COVID-19 pathogen.

A series of images obtained by The Australian document private security personnel, hired by the state government and overseen by the NSW Police Force, appearing to doze off while on duty at Sydney hotels in May and June.

The serious security lapses mean returning travellers who were possible carriers of the contagion could have moved in and out of their designated 14-day quarantine zones undetected, rendering contact tracing of the virus virtually impossible.

It follows allegations of similar lapses in hotel quarantine security in Melbourne that have been blamed as the main cause of a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks across the city, forcing the lockdown of 37 suburbs and bringing into question whether private contractors are properly equipped to handle the task.

The images are also sure to cause much consternation among the nation’s frontline emergency workers who have been toiling for months to stem the number of community transmissions of COVID-19 across the country.

In one instance, a guard wearing an Australian Concert and ­Entertainment Security uniform is seen slouched over in a chair while stationed on a quarantined floor at Sydney’s InterContinental hotel. It was taken shortly after 3am on May 15, according to one security guard familiar with the incident.

A private security guard seemingly asleep on the job at a Sydney hotel.

It is understood that on that occasion, all three guards posted to the floor had been found asleep when colleagues arrived to relieve them in the early hours of the morning.

In another image, a different guard, also understood to be ­employed by ACES, is seemingly asleep in a chair at another hotel.

The Australian has been told the guard initially had been ­stationed in one of the hotel’s stairwells on June 14 to ensure guests did not sneak out but, after complaining about “a cold draft”, moved his chair into the floor’s main corridor before appearing to nod off about 2am.

“Sometimes they put two guards in a stairwell and there’s big drafts in there and they’re doing really long shifts,” one ­security guard said.

“So they move themselves off the book position, they readjust themselves and they fall asleep on the job. It’s an ongoing issue because we’re overworked and underpaid, a bit like nurses, and it’s a dog-eat-dog industry.”

The guard said there were ­numerous rumours of security personnel helping smuggle in “excess alcohol” for quarantined travellers and, on one occasion, ­allegedly turning a blind eye when one guest briefly breached quarantine to see his girlfriend.

Approached for comment on Thursday, ACES said it was “not in a position to comment at this time” and that “all inquiries should be referred to the relevant authorities”.

NSW Health, the NSW Police Force and the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet all ­declined to indicate how much the private contracting company had been paid to carry out security at the hotels, or whether they had received any complaints about the quality of the work performed.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet said police had ultimate oversight of the operation.

“NSW Police are the lead agency who have been working with health authorities and the NSW government to provide a nation-leading hotel quarantine system,” a spokesperson said.