Key posts
Hotel quarantine breaches due to ‘absence of best practice’
By David Estcourt
While there’s a lot of talk this morning about aged care and whether Victoria will extend its lockdown, the ongoing debate about hotel quarantine is also bubbling away.
The head of the federal government’s hotel quarantine inquiry, Jane Halton, says hotel quarantine breaches have occurred because many of the best practice recommendations she made are not being adhered to.
Jane Halton says she’s disappointed with Australia’s hotel quarantine breaches. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
“Some of the breaches we have seen recently are a direct reflection of an absence of best practice in some of these systems,” she told the ABC’s RN Breakfast.
“To say that I’m disappointed about that I think is the minimum I would say. This virus is not staying still waiting for us to catch up with it and get in front of it.”
Ms Halton, who is also the co-chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, said negotiations over the Howard Springs-style quarantine facility to be built in Victoria, proposed to accommodate people arriving from overseas, has taken too long.
“It’s also, I think, a bit perplexing that it’s taken us this long,” she said.
The Howard Springs-style facility will be built only if Canberra approves Victoria’s request for federal funding. There has been a bit of back-and-forth in recent weeks about the best location for the facility.
Australians should be ‘terrified’ by aged care situation: Labor
By David Estcourt and Broede Carmody
Labor has gone on the offensive when it comes to aged care staff and vaccinations.
The federal opposition spokesperson for aged care, Clare O’Neil, says the lack of information over the proportion of aged care staff that have received the jab should “terrify” Australians.
Labor’s Clare O’Neil says Australians should be worried about the lack of clarity on the number of aged care staff who have been vaccinated. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“It should terrify every person in this country that the Aged Care Minister cannot tell us how many aged care staff have been vaccinated,” she told the ABC’s RN Breakfast a short while ago.
“This is a government that committed to vaccinate all aged care staff by March, and the best information that we have to date is that it’s somewhere between eight to nine per cent of aged care workers who have been fully vaccinated.”
Ms O’Neil claimed the only reason the federal government can cite the eight to nine per cent figure, as revealed in Senate health estimates yesterday, is that the health department called nursing homes and asked them.
“That is how substantially they have dropped the ball on this,” she said.
“Many [aged care staff] still believed that the federal government was coming to vaccinate [them] until it’s all come out in recent days that in fact there was no plan to do that.”
For more on yesterday’s fiery estimates, here’s the latest from our colleague Rachel Clun.
Regional leaders call for parts of Victoria to come out of lockdown
By Broede Carmody
Let’s take a look now at what some regional leaders are saying about the possibility of an extension to Victoria’s seven-day lockdown.
Remember that last year, rural and regional Victorians were able to come out of lockdown sooner than their urban counterparts due to the concentration of cases in Melbourne.
A regional Victorian mayor has called for towns like Portland, pictured here, to come out of lockdown.
Anita Rank, the mayor of Glenelg Shire – which covers south-west Victoria – was speaking on the Today show a short while ago. She said a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t the way to go when it comes to state lockdowns.
“We don’t have cases,” she said. “It feels like we are being penalised. Surely there’s other options that will benefit the regions who are suffering. I mean, the states of Victoria and NSW, they’re very big states.
“Having this blanket approach and lockdown [in Victoria] has a detrimental effect economically and socially. This was leading up to a long weekend, so there are lots of events and festivals that have had to be cancelled.”
Coalition Senator Matthew Canavan has also called on the Victorian government to open up rural and regional parts of the state.
It remains to be seen if the fresh exposure sites along the Hume Freeway, which connects Melbourne and Sydney, dash these people’s hopes.
View Victoria’s exposure sites below.
Hume Highway travellers, NSW on alert
By Broede Carmody
Victoria’s list of COVID-19 exposure sites has swelled to more than 350, as popular stops along the Hume Freeway make the list.
BP truck stops at Glenrowan, Euroa and Wallan have been listed as places of concern after a person attended on Monday, May 24 while infectious. The Hume links Sydney and Melbourne and is also a major thoroughfare for people travelling to and from central and northern Victoria.
The Hume Freeway on the outskirts of Melbourne.
It comes after Jervis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach and Vincentia in NSW were put on alert due to the same positive case crossing the NSW-Victorian border. The person visited regional NSW on May 23 and 24 and reported the onset of symptoms on May 25.
Victorians are bracing for an extended lockdown today as the list of exposure sites grow. A final decision is expected later in the day and we’ll be sure to bring you the latest news as soon as we know more.
Quarantine set to stay until next year
By Rachel Clun
Health estimates continued late into the evening last night, taking a deep-dive into the country’s hotel quarantine system and what alternatives were being canvassed by the federal government.
To date, there have been 21 instances where COVID-19 has spread within hotel quarantine, including the most recent incident in WA, the committee heard.
Secretary of the Department of Health Professor Brendan Murphy.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Despite those cases, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said the system has been “enormously successful”, pointing out that 352,000 people have been through the hotel quarantine system.
Greens senator Rachel Siewert asked if the decision had been made that Australia could live with these escapes of COVID-19 from hotel quarantine, rather than investing in more purpose-built facilities like the Howard Springs centre in Darwin. That facility has been expanded to now take up to 2000 return travellers. So far it has taken about 13,000.
Professor Kelly said at this point in time, the decision to use hotels as quarantine centres still stands despite the fact hotels were not built for that use, but the decision to use hotel quarantine is continually under review.
“Have there been some transmissions within the system? Yes there have. Have there been some escapes? Unfortunately, also yes,” he said.
“The system has operated exceptionally well, given the number of people that we’ve brought back into the country through it.”
Department of Health secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said quarantine was here to stay for some time, and the government was interested in exploring other quarantine options.
“Given the state of COVID around the world, it’s inconceivable that we would get away without some form of supervised quarantine – at least this year and sometime into next year,” he said.
“But it may not be for weeks, maybe for example you could have different forms of quarantine, where vaccinated people from low-risk countries might have a lower period of quarantine.”
UK reports no new COVID-19 deaths
By Broede Carmody
Britain has recorded a welcome COVID-19 milestone.
There were no new COVID-19 deaths across the country on Tuesday. But the UK’s health minister says the virus hasn’t been defeated.
Good news: Britain’s Health Minister Matt Hancock.Credit:AP
Read our full coverage here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
By Broede Carmody
Good morning and thanks for joining us. It’s Wednesday, June 2. I’m Broede Carmody.
Here’s what you need to know before we jump into our rolling coverage:
- Victorian cabinet ministers met late into the night to discuss the possibility of extending the state’s seven day lockdown (which at this stage is due to an end at midnight tomorrow). The state’s cluster is sitting at more at than 50 cases and authorities are particularly concerned about small venues that remain open such as community grocery stories.
- Parts of NSW are on alert after a positive case from Victoria crossed the border. The exposure sites include places in Goulburn and Jervis Bay and truck stops along the Hume Highway.
- And there has been an outpouring of support for tennis star Naomi Osaka after she withdrew from the French Open. Fellow athlete Serena Williams has commended Osaka for speaking about her mental health.