Hotel quarantine inquiry: Guest attacked nurse, threw fruit at guards

Victoria Police were called after a guest’s mental health episode, while in another incident a couple who tested positive were checked out.

Victoria Police were called to the Crown Metropol after a guest in quarantine attacked a nurse. Picture: Mark Stewart

Victoria Police were called after a hotel quarantine guest suffering from mental health issues attacked a nurse and threw oranges, apples and a chair at a security guard, an inquiry hears.

As well, the inquiry scrutinising the botched program linked to 99 per cent of Victoria’s second wave coronavirus cases heard a COVID-19 positive couple were accidentally checked out of quarantine by security guards on information provided by the Victorian government.

Unified Security Victorian Operations Manager Mo Nagi told the inquiry on Thursday that Victoria Police were called to the Crown Metropol after a guest in the grips of a mental health episode starting throwing fruit at security guards.

 “The guest was throwing oranges and apples at the guard … That was escalated directly to the authorised officer who called Victoria Police,” he said.

“The next night, the guest threw a chair and apples … at a guard once again and threatened to self harm and injure a nurse.”

In another incident, Mr Nagi said Victoria Police attended and attempted to communicate with the woman who did not answer before officers tried to enter her room forcefully.

As a Unified supervisor and a nurse waited, the woman burst through her door before attacking the nurse and attempting to runaway.

Mr Nagi said he heard his name being yelled before he saw the guest chasing the nurse down the hallway.

“She ended up getting the nurse into a closed off area and started hitting the nurse,” he said.

“I then grabbed the guest, restrained her.”

Mr Nagi said the guest began kicking him before Victoria Police officers jumped into the fray.

“She then assaulted police and was removed,” he said. Mr Nagi said the woman was taken to the Alfred Health before she returned to quarantine six hours later.

More than 99 per cent of Victoria’s second wave coronavirus cases, which have killed more than 570 people, can be linked to infection control breaches at the hotel quarantine program operating at the Stamford Plaza and the Rydges on Swanston.

In another incident on May 23, Mr Nagi said a security guard following a spreadsheet provided by the Department of Jobs, Regions and Precincts checked out a couple at the end of their 14-day mandatory period only to learn they had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Once they (the guests) went to the authorised officer, who then signed off their detention form, they’d been released,” he said.

“The authorised officer then advised that these people shouldn’t be removed … they said they were COVID positive and to be returned back to their room.”

Mr Nagi did not specify which hotel the incident occurred at but said in his statement that Unified were asked to assist with guest exits at the Crown Promenade and Metropol.

He told the inquiry a number of guards contracted the coronavirus at the Rydges and he was first alerted that one of his workers tested positive for the disease on May 26.

A family-of-four who stayed at the Rydges in mid-May have been linked to 90 per cent of Victoria’s coronavirus cases.