Three Perth hotels have been dumped from the COVID quarantine program after being identified as high risk, in a move the WA Premier says will see a cut in the number of international arrivals in the state.
Key points:
- Transmission in two of the hotels sparked COVID lockdowns
- A report found all three hotels to be "high risk"
- The Opposition says the Government should have acted sooner
The Mercure Hotel, The Four Points Hotel and the Novotel Langley will all be stood down from current use, with the Novotel Langley likely used to house "extremely low risk" seasonal workers from Tonga and Vanuatu instead.
Mark McGowan foreshadowed the move last week in regards to the Mercure Hotel.
"I've advised the Prime Minister we are going to move out of three of the hotels," Mr McGowan said.
"Whilst they are very secure, obviously they're not perfect and the ventilation systems there, we can't make perfect.
ABC News: Greg Pollock
)"That will result in a reduction in the number of people we can take into WA."
On Thursday, the maximum number of arrivals into WA was set to be halved to 512, following the recent outbreak at the Mercure Hotel which sparked a three-day lockdown.
Mr McGowan said it was still being worked out how many arrivals WA would be able to take in the future, using six quarantine hotels instead of nine.
But it was unlikely the system could safely handle 1,025 arrivals per week, like it did previously, given the government has said the system was already under pressure using all nine hotels.
Mr McGowan said the change would likely take effect in mid-May.
Two of the hotels at centre of lockdowns
The Four Points Hotel was also at the centre of a lockdown.
The five-day lockdown that began in late January was triggered by a security guard at the hotel who contracted COVID-19.
This month's lockdown was sparked after a guest at the Mercure caught COVID-19 while in quarantine, but did not test positive until after he was released and infectious in the community.
AAP: Richard Wainwright
)It is believed the Victorian man, along with a pregnant woman and her young daughter, caught the virus from a couple who had returned from India.
Positive cases still in 'high-risk' hotels
Health Minister Roger Cook said there were currently still positive cases in the "high-risk" hotels.
He said the risk was being managed by keeping staff away from rooms with positive cases, using HEPA filters, and figuring out how to move uninfected people further away from rooms where infected people were staying.
He said the decisions were being made on a case-by-case basis.
Report revealed 'high risk'
After the incident with the security guard, the government ordered a number of reports to identify how the hotel quarantine system could be improved.
One of the reports, handed to the Health Department on March 30, but only publicly released on Tuesday, found the three hotels now being retired were "high risk" because of ventilation issues.
The report recommended guests in adjoining rooms or directly opposite to a confirmed COVID-19 positive person should be moved at least one room further away, if possible.
The report by occupational hygienist Dr Laurie Glossop assessed 10 hotels, nine currently used for quarantine and another that could be added to the list.
It also found rooms for quarantining should be at negative pressure or at least neutral pressure to reduce the risk of potential spread.
Cook says report would not have changed outcome
Mr Cook said the reports were then consolidated and given to WA's Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson on April 8.
Mr McGowan said a week later he received advice from Dr Robertson stating the Mercure should no longer be used for housing high-risk returning Australians.
But by this stage, the virus was already leaking between rooms.
On Monday, Dr Robertson said at around the time of the Mercure outbreak protocols were being introduced to move people out of nearby rooms when a positive case was identified.
But he said hotels were full and there was not a spare one to move people into so there was "no easy solution".
Mr Cook said "there was never a recommendation that any of the hotels could not be used for hotel quarantine purposes".
He also said the advice from the Glossop report was to only move people in rooms opposite positive cases so this would not have changed the outcome for the Melbourne man.
ABC News: Rhiannon Shine
)"The Melbourne case was not opposite the room, it was across the corridor and diagonally opposite, so even if you had taken the Glossop report at its very most technical, you would not have moved that case and ultimately he still would have left the hotel which led to the circumstances which we had last week," he said.
Mr Cook said the UK family in the room opposite sadly would have caught the virus before authorities even knew the test results of the Indian case.
Dr Glossop's report followed one by Tarun Weeramanthri which was iniated on February 2, just days after it was revealed the security guard tested positive in January.
Professor Weeramanthri's initial advice, provided just two days later on February 4, showed airborne transmission and ventilation were of particular risk.
Mr Cook said there were inconsistencies between the reports so it was important to consider them in total, but some of the recommendations from Professor Weeramanthri were already being acted on.
Liberals condemn handling of hotel quarantine
The WA Liberal Party has slammed the state government for failing to act on the report's recommendations earlier.
Opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam said a recommendation for guests to be moved at least one room away from an infected person was ignored by the state government.
"By not acting immediately in the best interest of both those in hotels and the rest of the WA public, the McGowan government has put us all at risk and thrown a whole city into lockdown, costing the economy millions of dollars," she said.
"This was completely avoidable. The McGowan government now does need to act swiftly to ensure there are no further risks or outbreaks … [and] that our system is as safe and watertight as it can be.
ABC News: Kenith Png
)Health advice
Ms Mettam said her party would support the government moving from the hotel quarantine system to alternative quarantine facilities if the change was recommended by health advice.
The Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory, south-east of Darwin, is a dedicated quarantine facility for returned overseas travellers and has not recorded any community spread of COVID-19.
ABC News: Michael Franchi
)Ms Mettam said setting up a similar facility could be a suitable option for WA.
"We are saying that it is important to ensure that whether it is upgrading current facilities or looking at alternative facilities, that they do that through taking on the health advice which they have at their fingertips, and they do this in the best interest of the WA public," she said.
Ms Mettam said while the WA Liberal Party supported the decision to pause travel from India, the state government still needed to make improvements to the hotel quarantine system.
She said temporarily banning travellers from India was the right move, considering the country's rapidly growing cases of COVID-19.
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