WorkSafe Victoria issued improvement notices to the Health Department and COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria in late January before the state’s latest coronavirus cluster emerged from the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport quarantine hotel.
A government source with knowledge of WorkSafe’s action who was not authorised to comment publicly told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that the notices related to quarantine protocols at Melbourne Airport and came about a week before a family of three staying at the Holiday Inn tested positive to the British strain of the coronavirus.
The improvement notices had been issued before Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared the state’s hotel quarantine arrangements were “gold standard” and more stringent than other states.
The Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn cluster grew to 19 people on Tuesday. It prompted Mr Andrews to last Friday place the entire state under a five-day hard lockdown which he described as a “circuit breaker” to halt the spread of the virus into the community.
Mr Andrews announced on Wednesday morning that the lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Wednesday, after Victoria recorded no new coronavirus cases overnight.
The Age has not been able to determine which protocols prompted WorkSafe to express concern. The improvement notices were issues to the Health Department (formerly the Department of Health and Human Services) and CQV, the government agency charged with running the hotel quarantine program.
Officials from both agencies were given written instructions on what needed to be fixed and by when.
The next step up from an improvement notice from WorkSafe is a prohibition notice. Had one of these been served on the Health Department and CQV in relation to their protocols at Melbourne Airport, it could have led to a temporary shutdown of parts of Victoria’s hotel quarantine system.
However, employees at Healthcare Australia, which provides medical services in “cold” hotels, have made formal complaints to WorkSafe Victoria because hotel operations managers and leaders of clinical teams have been attending the company’s St Kilda Road office on the same days that they enter quarantine hotels.
A spokeswoman for COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria confirmed a “small group” of employees move between hotels and another office, but said they had only entered hotel “green zones” and had no interaction with guests.
The spokeswoman also insisted doctors and nurses worked exclusively at one hotel only.
Know more? Contact Richard Baker at richardkb33@protonmail.com
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Richard Baker is a multi-award winning investigative reporter for The Age.
Paul is a Victorian political reporter for The Age.
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2021-02-17 00:55:00Z
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