A Victorian government review commissioned three months after a multimillion-dollar contract was handed to a Melbourne hotel to quarantine people infected with coronavirus found the site was not fit for that purpose.
Brady Hotels has expressed its disappointment at the government's sudden decision to withdraw the contract, awarded to them by the Health Department and previously reported to be worth up to $10 million over a year.
The Brady Hotel was designated a 'hot hotel', to quarantine people who had tested positive to coronavirus.Credit:Joe Armao
It comes as Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton revealed genomic sequencing suggested none of nine hotel quarantine workers infected with COVID-19 since the program reset in July had contracted it in the hotels.
With just seven new cases and two deaths on Friday, taking Melbourne's 14-day average to 12.8, Professor Sutton said Victoria was on track for restrictions to be eased on October 19, but it would not be earlier.
The Andrews government went on the front foot to defend its revamped hotels program on Friday, which is currently housing 107 community members, frontline workers and returned travellers infected with coronavirus.
The program was switched to Attorney-General Jill Hennessy's Justice Department in July and Ms Hennessy on Friday said it was under "strong and accountable leadership" and had not seen a worker infected in more than four weeks.
Privately contracted "floor monitors" were hastily stood down and replaced by police at the Novotel in Southbank on Wednesday after the last quarantined guests at the Brady Hotel on Little La Trobe Street in the CBD were moved to the Novotel.
Victorian-owned Brady Hotels signed a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to become a 'hot' hotel in mid-June that included an option to cancel the deal in September without cost.
Ms Hennessy said on Friday a Justice Department review had since decided Brady Hotel was in fact not fit for purpose because of its proximity to construction sites such as the government's Metro Tunnel project, which was in progress months before the contract was signed.
"There’s obviously a lot of construction occurring in that area, so things like access to emergency services, their ability to access the hotel was an issue," she said.
"Brady is obviously very close to a lot of significant construction work that’s going and I think that was a factor ... I wasn’t involved in the execution in any of the contracts, I can’t speak to what the motivators or the risk assessments were at that time."
In response, Brady Hotel general manager Robert Moore said his company was "disappointed" by the surprise decision.
"Brady Group is disappointed not to be a part of the program going forward and would refer further questions to the Department of Justice and Community Safety," he said.
A spokeswoman said the government had "no issue" with Brady Hotel's level of service and the site was cancelled in part because of "nearby construction work for the Metro Tunnel project causing disruption for residents".
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the Brady Hotel contract flip showed "more dysfunction, more chaos within the government".
"They don't know what's going on and they haven't looked into this properly," she said.
The hotels program has been under renewed scrutiny this week after the Health Department said nine workers from the hotels had picked up COVID-19. The recent outbreak followed an earlier spate of infections among hotel quarantine security guards, which genomic testing found had sparked much of Victoria's peak of coronavirus cases.
Professor Sutton said genomic sequencing of six of the nine most recent cases among hotel quarantine staff showed they had been contracted in the community, not in hotels.
"The six that did have genomic sequencing essentially showed that it's linked to the community cluster, or community strain," he said.
One sequenced case showed a link to an aged care facility, believed to be a cleaner who worked in aged care before working one day in the Grand Chancellor Hotel while asymptomatic but infectious.
Professor Sutton said while he would "love" contractors like cleaners to be tied to one worksite and avoid picking up the virus in other high-risk settings like aged care, he did not believe it was possible.
With about 75 per cent of daily cases in healthcare and aged care workers, and 'mystery cases' reducing, Victoria was on track to reach the threshold of five or fewer mystery cases in the last 14 days by October 19, Professor Sutton said.
"We're still in with a very decent chance of hitting that date ... the number of cases of unkonwn source is halving every 10 days."
Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely said if cases plummeted even further by October 12 the government could reconsider easing restrictions.
“If I was a very brave Chief Health Officer, I might consider opening up then,” he said. “But really the 19th of October is pretty safe.”
Seven cases on Friday followed 15 on Thursday and 13 on Wednesday. The last time the number of new cases was consistently in single figures was in early June.
Meanwhile, a cluster linked to Chadstone Shopping Centre was likely sparked by a cleaner who worked despite her family members contracting COVID-19, Professor Sutton said.
The cluster of 11 appeared to have been sparked by a cleaners at Chadstone's Butcher Club store and included two staff at its Jasper Coffee store.
with Melissa Cunningham
Michael is a state political reporter for The Age.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihQFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL3ZpY3Rvcmlhbi1nb3Zlcm5tZW50LWZsaXBzLW9uLW11bHRpbWlsbGlvbi1kb2xsYXItaG90LWhvdGVsLWNvbnRyYWN0LTIwMjAxMDAyLXA1NjFpNy5odG1s0gGFAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWFnZS5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvdmljdG9yaWEvdmljdG9yaWFuLWdvdmVybm1lbnQtZmxpcHMtb24tbXVsdGltaWxsaW9uLWRvbGxhci1ob3QtaG90ZWwtY29udHJhY3QtMjAyMDEwMDItcDU2MWk3Lmh0bWw?oc=5
2020-10-02 08:21:00Z
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