Vic restrictions return after hotel worker infected

The Victorian government has imposed new statewide coronavirus restrictions after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive, but rejected the hardline approach adopted in Western Australia.

Premier Daniel Andrews announces new restrictions for Victorians on Wednesday night. Picture: Wayne Taylor

The Victorian government has imposed new statewide coronavirus restrictions after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive, but rejected the hardline approach adopted in Western Australia where two million Perth residents were locked down over a single case.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced late on Wednesday night that restrictions on gatherings would be tightened to 15, masks would be compulsory indoors again and planned increases to how many employees returned to workplaces would be delayed.

“This is one case. There’s no need for people to panic. There’s no need for people to be alarmed,” Mr Andrews said.

Victoria’s Health Department said it was investigating the hotel worker’s case and authorities were contacting all Australian Open players, officials and support staff who had stayed at the hotel in question, the Grand Hyatt, and informed them to isolate. As many as 600 people connected to the tournament will remain in isolation until they receive a negative test.

Perth residents will face ongoing restrictions once the city’s hard lockdown ends on Friday, despite no new COVID-19 cases being recorded in three days, as the state’s health authorities struggle to explain how the coronavirus was transmitted to a quarantine hotel security guard.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan would not detail what the likely ongoing restrictions in Perth would be, but said it was necessary because the virus could “linger” for up to a fortnight.

He expects hospitality venues to reopen on Friday, and schools to resume classes on Monday.

In a sign of a health system under strain, officials were unable to explain how the security guard contracted the virus and reversed a previous explanation that he had delivered medication to a room.

“His role was to monitor the floor to ensure no one left their room and, as I said, he was sitting on a chair near the stairwell a safe distance from the room in question,” Health Minister Roger Cook said on Wednesday.

“It may have been the case that the airflow situation of that particular floor wherever the person was sitting at several times that the door was opened … a chance event with that person became infected,” said Health Department communicable disease director Paul Armstrong. “That is our working hypothesis.”

Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Picture: Ian Currie

Mr McGowan said he would have ignored health advice and worn a face mask if he had to enter a quarantine hotel, with the previous guidelines labelled “crazy” and “foolish” by infectious disease and public health experts.

WA has changed that advice and requires the wearing of a mask at all times in hotel quarantine.

“Our (previous) policy position was that masks were not necessary because the risk of infection was considered to be negligible, versus the downside from wearing masks,” Dr Armstrong said. “We have switched that position.”

The infection of that security guard prompted Mr McGowan to push Perth and surrounding areas into a snap five-day lockdown expected to end on Friday.

The Australian Medical Association had warned of the risks of airborne transmission for months, but the state’s hotel guards were until now not ¬required to wear masks at all times.

Mr McGowan on Wednesday apologised for the series of events, which dented public confidence in the state’s health system and will now be the subject of a review.

“Obviously I am very sorry about what has occurred. I’m not afraid to apologise,” he said. “This has been debilitating for many people. Obviously we went for 10 months without a case — this has been a shock to all of us.”

The policy that allowed guards to be stationed in the hallways of quarantine hotels without face masks has been scrapped, the latest in a line of policy positions that have been overhauled in the days since Perth went into lockdown.

Health experts said they were shocked the government had let guards at quarantine ¬hotels work without wearing personal protective equipment. “That’s foolish,” said Shane Thomas, a public health researcher at the Australian National University. “If that was their protocol, that is very surprising. It’s not consistent with what we know scientifically.”

The group Healthcare Workers Australia is campaigning for airborne protection for all workers at quarantine hotels.

David Berger, a spokesman for the group, said the guard’s infection appeared to be a clear case of airborne transmission.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Getty Images

“To have had this worker not wearing a mask is crazy, absolutely crazy,” Dr Berger said.

“He should have been wearing airborne protection, but the notion that there would have been a guard sitting there without even a mask at all is pure incompetence, and people should be sacked over that advice.”

The government had been under intense pressure over its hotel quarantine system after it emerged it was the last mainland state to introduce daily testing of security guards and failed to tell the commonwealth and other jurisdictions of the positive test for more than 11 hours.

That step was enacted in Victoria and NSW late last year.

Authorities disclosed on Wednesday that seven deliveries were made to the infected traveller’s room on the day the guard contracted the virus. Those deliveries were made by personnel wearing PPE while the unmasked guard sat down the hall.

The AMA’s WA president, Andrew Miller, said he was disappointed with Dr Armstrong’s comments — noting it had been clear since last March that the virus could spread through airborne droplets.

“The Premier said today he wouldn’t have gone into a quarantine hotel without a mask on,” he said. “Why does the Premier know that but his deputy (chief health officer) didn’t know that?”