Hotels are built for tourists, not for managing infectious diseases. There have been at least 21 breaches in hotel quarantine right around this country. Just in the last month, we have seen three outbreaks, one in South Australia and two in WA.
Despite all the protections that we put in place, appropriately put in place, vaccination of staff, daily testing of staff, PPE, N95 masks, ventilation works just to name a few, we cannot eliminate risk in this environment.
The fact that Howard Springs is the only system in the country that has seen no breaches really speaks for itself. That’s why we pushed so hard to get a purpose-built quarantine facility. Howard Springs is the only facility in this country that has not seen a breach and that’s exactly why we have been pushing for this purpose-built facility.
The best-case scenario was that this was done a year ago. The next best scenario is that we get it done immediately. I am very pleased, as we have heard over the last few days, that that’s received the support of the federal government.
We will get this facility built – this purpose-built facility – built as quickly as possible and in the mean time we will do our absolute best within our hotel quarantine system to reduce risk as much as is humanely possible.