Infectious diseases expert says it’s ‘not a good situation at all’ in WA’s quarantine hotels

A Perth-based infectious diseases expert says what currently goes on in WA’s quarantine hotels is “not a good situation at all”.

It comes as parts of WA endure a five-day lockdown sparked by a hotel quarantine worker, who moonlighted as a rideshare driver, returning a positive COVID-19 test.

Infectious diseases expert, Dr Clay Golledge, says the lockdown is “a total overreaction”.

“We’re using such a blunt instrument. We’ve done it with the eastern states border lockouts, we’re doing it again,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“We could have done this much, much better with much more targeted isolation.”

But Dr Golledge says there are serious problems with WA’s quarantine system.

“Hotel quarantine … is our Achilles heel. Everything has stemmed from that,” he said.

“We should be having dedicated quarantine centres. The workers there are all wearing PPE, they have only one job, they don’t go to a second job, and everyone has daily saliva testing.

“At the moment it’s scattergun in Perth. You’ve got four or five COVID hotels with people all mixing and matching, other guests staying there, people coming and going not wearing PPE.

“It’s not a good situation at all.”

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