The New Daily, 30 May 2021:
The numbers used by the federal government to defend the effectiveness of hotel quarantine are wrong, one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists has said.
The criticism comes amid growing calls for every state and territory to have a purpose-built facility, as new analysis shows purpose-built quarantine costs a fraction of the economic cost of lockdowns.
Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to downplay concerns Australia would keep yoyo-ing in and out of lockdown until issues in hotel quarantine were fixed.
“A system that is achieving 99.99 per cent effectiveness is a very strong system and is serving Australia very well,” Mr Morrison said.
“If I was to tell you [last year] that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn’t have believed me. No one in this country would have believed me. I would have found that hard to believe.”
But Mary-Louise McLaws, an infectious diseases expert at the University of New South Wales and member of the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 response team, said the PM’s figure was wrong.
“I have no idea where it’s been plucked out of,” Professor McLaws told The New Daily.
Around 70 per cent of total cases since Australia closed its borders on March 20 last year have directly and indirectly come from quarantine breaches and exemptions, she said.
Approximately 21,000 people have been infected due to those breaches and exemption.
Professor McLaws said the Australian government needed to “turn 180 degrees and rethink” the quarantine system, to save itself money and protect its citizens.
“Lockdown costs $1billion a week for NSW or Victoria,” she said.
Pointing to the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility, which has not leaked a single case into the community, she said states need their own purpose-built facilities, not hotels.
“Victoria has estimated they could make a purpose-built for $700 million. That’s less than the cost of a one-week lockdown,” Professor McLaws said.
“In WA, they could make a 1000-bed facility that would cost between $80 million and $200 million – that’s still a fraction.
“So when people say this is too expensive, I say try $1 billion a week.”…..
News.com.au, 29 May 2021:
A Melbourne doctor has delivered a spray at the PM on national television as frustration boils over about the Government’s biggest headache.
Frontline emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning after Victoria was thrust into its fourth lockdown since the pandemic began.
He told the ABC that Victorians are “getting tired of hearing excuses” about things that “should have happened earlier this year, at least”.
He was referring to delays in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the Commonwealth’s slow take-up of advice to build a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility that does not involve placing infected people in hotel rooms.
“It’s taking too long,” Dr Parnis said. “It should have happened earlier this year, at least. We need to do it right now. [New quarantine facilities] has the same urgency as vaccinating our nursing home populations.
“We know that this virus has airborne transmission. We know that the best protocols will still not be foolproof in hotels that are designed for tourists. Each state and territory will have plans for these things. But they are waiting for the checks to come from Canberra and those checks have been delayed,” Dr Parnis said.
“That is unacceptable, I think, to the medical profession, and it should be unacceptable to the wider population.”
It is a sentiment shared by Melbourne GP Dr Vyom Sharma. He told news.com.au there is nowhere near enough being done to stop leaks from HQ.
“There are no nationally consistent guidelines for infection prevention and control,” he said.
“Different states have different standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — some will use simple surgical masks when near travellers, others will use N95 respirators.
“Some states have performed ventilation audits and upgrades. Others either have not, or have not reported this publicly. This inconsistency risks further instances of airborne transmission within quarantine.”
He said staff working in medi-hotels are not being protected.
“Any staff within line of sight of a returned traveller should be wearing an N95 mask. That is a no brainer, and an instant fix — source the materials, fit test all staff.
“Also, and I can only hope this is the case in all states, make vaccination mandatory for all staff, and do not allow them on site until two weeks after the second dose.”
Dr Sharma said the problem was no going to disappear and that only fit-for-purpose accommodation would prevent more outbreaks.
“More leaks are inevitable if things stay the same. Only a fool would bet otherwise.”
The problem with using hotel quarantine to house overseas arrivals from Covid-19 hotspots was raised with the Prime Minister on Thursday after Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino revealed the holdup in building an broadacre facility was at a federal level.
“We are waiting on the green light in terms of going ahead,” he said in relation to a proposal to build such a facility at Avalon or Mickleham partly funded by both state and federal governments.
Mr Morrison said he was “highly favourable” of the Victorian plan but did not make a firm commitment.
Melbourne surgeon Dr Eric Levi expressed his frustration at Victoria being forced into another lockdown because quarantine issues had not been sorted.
“Let’s learn from this. AGAIN,” he wrote on Twitter.
“One person was Covid negative on multiple swabs, spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. Caught Covid from the room next door. Flew back to Melbourne. Tested positive.
Now thousands of primary and secondary contacts. One person in ICU.
“More than 150 exposure locations. And a state in lockdown. Again. It’s 16 months into the pandemic. Should we not have learned this last year. Can we fix upstream quarantine problems before it causes downstream catastrophe?
“Covid is airborne. Majority of those with Covid have no symptoms. By the time they know they’re positive, they’ve shared the virus with others. We now have vaccines to reduce transmission. New variants are emerging.”
Mr Merlino said expressions of interest had been sent out on Friday for the building of a facility at either Avalon or Mickleham, 30km and 56km from the CBD respectively.
But nothing will happen without the Morrison Government’s approval. It will have the final say.
“Both sites could work and that will ultimately, because these are both Commonwealth pieces of land, be the decision of the Commonwealth,” Mr Merlino said.
No comments:
Post a Comment