It emerged this week that nine people employed in Melbourne's hotel quarantine program have tested positive to coronavirus since late July and two went to work while infectious.
Those workers were all employed in hotel quarantine after the Victorian Government closed the state's borders to international travellers and announced a "reset" of the troubled program, which has been blamed for much of the state's coronavirus second wave.
Over the past three months, hotel quarantine has continued to operate for Victorians with COVID-19 who needed to self-isolate but could not do so safely at home, and a small number of returned international travellers accepted on compassionate grounds.
The revelation that during that time nine employees contracted coronavirus has left many people wondering whether authorities have learnt the lessons of past failures, and whether they are doing enough to ensure hotel quarantine does not cause more deadly outbreaks in future.
What jobs were the infected workers doing?
Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the nine workers who became infected were mostly employed by services company Spotless.
Spotless was contracted to undertake cleaning and, until Wednesday this week, "customer service and floor monitor roles".
Corrections Commissioner Emma Cassar — whose staff are now overseeing the hotel quarantine program — said on Friday that Spotless staff were monitoring rooms in the hotels.
She said if a guest attempted to leave, Spotless monitors would verbally advise the guest not to go and then notify police officers to respond.
But it wasn't only Spotless staff that have been infected.
Yesterday Professor Sutton said the nine workers were:
- Three Spotless staff who lived together
- Two other Spotless workers who lived together in a separate household
- Another Spotless worker
- A member of Victoria Police who was linked to a separate outbreak
- A person who worked in support and cleaning services
- A DHHS staff member who had contact with a known case elsewhere
But on Thursday, DHHS said there were five Spotless workers and two Alfred Health staff.
One of those nine infected workers has been linked to an outbreak in an aged care setting, but Professor Sutton was unable to confirm if they had worked some shifts in aged care themselves or were a close contact.
Did these nine people contract coronavirus inside hotel quarantine?
The Department of Health and Human Services doesn't think so.
Professor Sutton said the infections were "absolutely a reflection of the very substantial community transmission" in Melbourne at the time.
He said genomic sequencing conducted for six of the infected workers pointed to links to known clusters or community transmission.
The other three workers did not have genomic testing done, but Professor Sutton said there was evidence they all contracted the virus in the community.
"One of the three for whom there's no sequencing was a household member of two others, so almost certainly acquired their infection through transmission in the household," he said.
"The second of the three without sequencing was epidemiologically linked to an aged care facility, and a third … had contact with a known case who acquired their infection elsewhere."
He said there were "no cases … with a probable acquisition" inside the hotels.
But on Wednesday, Spotless workers at the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf hotel were stood down mid-shift and replaced by police officers after concerns were raised about infection control.
Why did police replace Spotless workers in community support roles?
The Spotless workers were engaged in floor monitor and community support roles when they were stood down and replaced by police officers on Wednesday.
Infection control concerns had been raised before the staffing swap, but Commissioner Cassar said the intention to replace Spotless workers with police officers was "always planned".
When asked why police officers had not taken over those roles earlier, she said: "That would probably be a question for Victoria Police."
"We had been having a number of conversations with Victoria Police prior to that," she said.
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said the Government had failed to learn the lessons of using private security in the "bungled hotel quarantine program".
"We've had infections coming out of the current hotel quarantine program and all the Government is doing is renaming it," she said.
"Victorians don't want a renamed program, they just want a program that works, where they feel safe and that they've got confidence from the Government that infections are not going to get out of control."
On Friday, police union boss Wayne Gatt suggested some officers were not altogether pleased with the new roles, which he said may not be making the best use of officers' skills.
"You'd hope for good reason that it is utilising police for their skills that they have, not skills that they don't have," he said.
Why weren't contractors replaced before this week?
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said when her department took over the hotel quarantine program, the urgent priority was removing private security.
Continual changes are still being made, she said.
"We have been working to make sure that we are able to reduce all the other risks around workforce in the interim," she said.
"We have not had an active case related to our workforce for at least four weeks."
Spotless workers are continuing to provide cleaning services for the state's hotel quarantine program.
Should private contractors have been employed in hotel quarantine again?
Evidence presented at the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry revealed serious concerns about the use of private contractors to secure hotel quarantine.
It heard the virus escaping hotel quarantine was responsible for 768 deaths and more than 18,000 infections.
The Attorney-General was asked why the State engaged a largely casual workforce from a private company again, given the issues identified in the inquiry.
She said the State trusted the infection control expertise of Alfred Health, who were brought in to deliver clinical services, infection prevention and control expertise, and pathogen cleaning.
Alfred Health directly engaged the Spotless workers because they already employed Spotless staff in their hospitals.
"Alfred are world leaders around infection control. We have confidence in the relationships that they bring," Ms Hennessy said.
Spotless said in a statement on Friday that staff working in a healthcare setting such as a hospital or health hotel undertook more than five hours of "pre-induction training", which included a combination of online and in-person training on topics including personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention.
It said a number of those training modules had been designed in collaboration with Alfred Health infection prevention teams and a 90-minute onsite induction was given at the first shift to cover PPE, expected behaviours and other workplace safety issues.
Spotless said on-site training was also provided by Alfred Health and every staff member must now provide a daily declaration that they have not worked at another site in the 14 days prior to commencing their shift.
How did the hotel program change in the 'reset'?
When the Premier stood up on June 30 and told Victorians that major failures in the state's hotel quarantine program had led to what would become the state's deadly second wave, he also announced a reset of the program.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) gradually took over as lead agency from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in early July, and Corrections Victoria staff were brought in to oversee the hotel quarantine program.
Police were brought in to help with security efforts and Alfred Health came in to provide additional support.
And while at least one of the infected workers had been employed across multiple sites, Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said that "would not and could not occur" under the current arrangements.
There are currently 55 people in the hotel accommodation program.
Will the ADF be used when the program ramps up?
The Premier has said international flights into Melbourne will remain on hold until the hotel quarantine inquiry presents its findings in November.
Ms Hennessy said what role the Australian Defence Force should play when the program increases its capacity would be considered in due course.
"At this point in time, we're satisfied with the model we've got," she said.
"It is really not the time to start taking potentially high-risk decisions.
"We're very, very focused on having an infection control model in place around the emergency accommodation for Victorians that essentially ensures that we've got the right powers, the right training, the right chains of accountability in place."
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2020-10-02 21:01:00Z
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