Victoria Covid-19: almost all cases related to quarantine hotels

Almost all of the current cases of Covid-19 in Victoria, Australia can be linked to returning travelers quarantined in the state, an investigation has found.

The investigation also found that guards at quarantine hotels had received “inappropriate” training advice.

Australian media reports that the guards were told that masks and other protection would not be necessary, as long as they adhere to a social distance of 1.5m.

Victoria is currently on lockdown due to a second wave of infections.

Stricter “Fourth Stage” restrictions were put in place in the city of Melbourne on August 2 for six weeks.

Victoria recorded 25 more deaths and 282 new cases of the virus on Monday, making it the state’s deadliest day since the start of the pandemic.

At the end of March, Australia’s federal government said anyone returning to the country from overseas would have to join mandatory quarantine programs, which would be administered by individual states.

Professor Ben Howden, director of the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute infectious disease center, told the Victoria Hotel Quarantine System Inquiry that genomic sequencing data suggested at least 99% of cases by the end of the month of July could be attributed to people who had returned after traveling abroad.

However, he did not specifically link the cases to people participating in these programs or to particular hotels.

Sequencing covered 46% of the state’s cases through July 23, he said, adding that they were “incredibly confident about the accuracy of this grouping.”

Lawyer Tony Neal QC said the investigation would seek to determine how the program was structured and who was ultimately responsible for its execution, as well as what improvements could be made to future quarantine programs.

The quarantine program “failed to meet its goal” of preventing the spread of Covid-19, and for some people in quarantine it was “unclear who was in overall command of the operation,” Neal said .