Coronavirus: Hundreds wait for beds amid Victorian hotel quarantine chaos

Hundreds of Covid-19 positive people and their households are waiting for beds as a growing backlog of referrals increases pressure on the hotel quarantine system.

Quarantine Victoria commissioner Emma Cassar. Picture: Ian Currie

Hundreds of Covid-19-positive Victorians and primary close contacts are waiting for quarantine beds as a growing backlog of referrals increases pressure on the hotel system amid soaring community case numbers.

Tensions are running high between responsible agency Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria and the state’s public health team over the explosion in referrals as the state records hundreds of new cases a day.

CQV is working through 300 referrals, including 140 positive cases, and eight extra staff members have been hired to help manage the rise in primary close contact referrals.

A spokeswoman said a second health hotel was stood up on Aug­ust 27 to accommodate the jump in demand for beds. “The recent sharp rise in positive community cases has significantly increased demand for places in the program’s emergency accommodation and health hotels,” she said.

“CQV has responded by creating an additional health hotel and is employing more staff to manage referrals from public health. We liaise with the Department of Health to ensure highest priority individuals requiring emergency accommodation are referred by public health to hotel quarantine and work closely with Alfred Health to manage any intakes to the health hotels.”

Under Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, people who present a high risk of transmitting the virus are offered accommodation in hotels to minimise their exposure to others. This includes positive cases’ families sharing households; public housing towers are considered particularly vulnerable to transmission.

The Australian understands there is frustration within CQV that the public health team is not undertaking adequate assessments before referring people for quarantine accommodation.

It is understood CQV is helping the Victorian Health Department improve their referral and triage criteria in a bid to reduce low-risk cases referred for health hotel accommodation.

Opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said the backlog of cases could see further community transmission and an extension of Victoria’s sixth lockdown as people unwillingly infected their household members.

There are 59 community members in quarantine hotels and 183 in health and complex care hotels, according to Covid-19 accommodation program data.

There no shortage of bed for international travellers, who pay for their stint in hotel quarantine.