How top infection control experts thinks Victoria’s hotel quarantine system should change

With international flights into Melbourne to resume in two weeks, some of the country’s top infection control experts are calling for urgent changes to ensure there aren’t more hotel quarantine outbreaks.

On December 7, hotel quarantine will restart in Victoria as flights return.

President of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control, Associate Professor Philip Russo, says it’s a no-brainer.

“It’s just one of those controls that can be put in place to remove a danger,” he told Ross and Russel.

Professor Russo says ensuring workers in hotel quarantine don’t also work elsewhere is another important measure to ensure there isn’t another COVID-19 outbreak stemming from the quarantine system.

“The workers who’d be employed in these places should be employed full time, so they’re not working other jobs as well,” he said.

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But adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales, Bill Bowtell, says he’s not sure isolated hotel quarantine will remain viable as international arrival numbers grow.

“There’s the staffing question. You can do it for a small number of people, put them in a remote location, but as we look at the demand that will come on us next week, how do we staff it?,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Professor Bowtell says better staff training will also be the key to reducing hotel quarantine outbreaks.

“We’ve got to have a broader and better trained sustained workforce,” he said.

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