Coronavirus: Lockdown as quarantine guards set corona free

Infection control breaches by ­security contractors have forced a four-week shutdown of 37 Melbourne suburbs.

Daniel Andrews announced all inter­national flights would be diverted away from Melbourne for the next fortnight. Picture: Ian Currie

Infection control breaches by ­security contractors hired by the Andrews government to manage Victoria’s hotel quarantine regime have fuelled a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks that have forced a four-week shutdown of 37 suburbs in Melbourne’s north and west.

Premier Daniel Andrews ­announced a judicial inquiry into the cluster of infections from staff at quarantine hotels who breached infection control protocols and have been linked to almost 50 COVID-19 cases.

Stay-at-home restrictions on more than 300,000 residents will come into force from midnight on Wednesday after the state confirmed 64 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and 75 on Monday. The jump followed a fortnight of double-digit daily case counts which have seen the number of active cases in Victoria rise to 321.

Victoria’s surge in new cases has accelerated so fast in the past week that its infection rate is now greater than Italy’s on a per-capita basis.

South Australia and Queensland on Tuesday reversed planned border openings for Victorians — joining Western Australia, which is keeping its borders closed — sparking warnings from business that the state’s failure to successfully suppress the virus would ­increased pressure on the national economy.

Victoria represents 23 per cent of the national economy, but Victorians are the biggest-spending domestic tourists in five of Australia’s states and territories. Scott Morrison urged premiers to limit the prohibitions to travellers from declared coronavirus hotspots.

Announcing the new localised lockdown on Tuesday, Mr ­Andrews conceded genomic ­sequencing had linked a large proportion of the state’s new cases to infection control breaches in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.

Six of Tuesday’s new cases were linked to a cluster in security contractors at the Stamford Plaza quarantine hotel, bringing the total in that outbreak to 29. A further 17 cases have previously been linked to an outbreak in security guards at the Rydges on Swanston quarantine hotel.

 

The Andrews government has previously refused to name the companies involved in employing the contractors. In response to questions from The Australian last week, a government spokes­woman said there were three companies involved in providing hotel quarantine security, some of which may be using subcontractors, and that Stamford Plaza and Rydges on Swanston were serviced by different companies.

Admitting there had “clearly” been a “failure” in the operation of the program, Mr Andrews on Tuesday announced all inter­national flights would be diverted away from Melbourne for the next fortnight, Corrections Victoria staff would take over security roles, and an inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, led by a former judge, would be established with a report due in eight to 10 weeks.

Victorian authorities are continuing a testing and engagement “blitz” in problem suburbs, with more than 93,000 tests conducted since Thursday. Mr Andrews ­revealed that in worst-affected Broadmeadows and Keilor Downs alone, 928 people had refused tests. From midnight on Wednesday until July 29, residents in 10 Victorian postcodes will be ­allowed to leave their homes only to shop for food or other essentials, receive medical care or perform caregiving roles, exercise, or attend work or school. Those who live outside the postcodes will only be allowed to enter for the same reasons.

The affected suburbs are Brooklyn, Kingsville, Maidstone, Tottenham, West Footscray, Albanvale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans, Ascot Vale, Highpoint City, Maribyrnong, Travancore, Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens, Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie, Niddre North, Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park, Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana, Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale, Moreland West, Fawkner, Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickelham, Roxburgh Park and Kalkallo.

Many of the suburbs are in Melbourne’s outer north and west, with high proportions of overseas-born and low-income residents. However, the hotspots extend into trendier parts of the inner north, such as Brunswick, Travancore and Ascot Vale.

Keilor Downs, the site of one of the biggest family clusters and where several schools have been forced to close, is also covered by the order.

Police are to enforce the stay-at-home orders with patrols and booze-bus-style checkpoints, with on-the-spot fines of $1652 for anyone found breaching Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s directives.

 

Every Victorian business will revert back to a maximum density of one person per 4 sq m, while gatherings in the hotspot postcodes are limited to two people who are not from the same household. Cafes, restaurants and pubs in the hotspots will be restricted to takeaway only, while community sport, beauticians, gyms, pools, cinemas, theatres, TABs and play centres will be closed. Hardship payments of $5000 will be made by the state government to affected businesses. Golf and fishing will be prohibited in the affected postcodes.

Acknowledging there were some new infections in postcodes outside the area being shut down, Mr Andrews refused to rule out returning the entire state to a stay-at-home order if necessary.

“I certainly can’t rule out other postcodes having to be locked down, and I can’t rule out other further steps having to be taken,” he said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state’s border would open to residents of other states on July 10 but all travellers would have to sign declarations that they had not been in Victoria in the previous fortnight.

Arrivals in Queensland who had been in Victoria in the previous fortnight would be turned back or forced to submit to hotel quarantine at their own expense.

South Australia said it would soon allow residents of NSW and the ACT to join its travel bubble.

The Prime Minister, who has consistently called for all states and territories to reopen their borders, said a blanket ban on Victorian travellers “makes little sense”.

“There is a hotspot in one part of Melbourne. Admittedly, it’s very serious. It has our total focus and it is of great concern,” Mr Morrison said.

“But if you’re living in Wangaratta, then you’re not more affected by what’s going on in those suburbs of Melbourne than if you’re living in Whyalla.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would not impose a travel ban on Victoria but asked anyone from the Melbourne hotspots to stay away. “If you are a loved one, a friend or a family member, please don’t come up at this time,” she said.

Additional reporting: Geoff Chambers

Note: The Stamford Plaza released a statement on July 1, saying the hotel group had not breached any infection control protocols and none of its staff had tested positive to Covid-19.

“On or about 13 June 2020, a security contractor, personnel hired by the Victoria Government, tested positive for the Covid‐19 virus,’’ the statement said. “This security personnel was not under the employ of SPM or its related companies.

“SPM was not responsible for the purported 29 Covid‐19 cases. SPM is not aware of where the 29 cases originated, save to say that these 29 cases did not originate from the staff of SPM, or from the purported breach of the infection control protocols.”