It has only taken four hard lockdowns totalling 23 weeks and more than 700 deaths, but the federal and Victorian governments are close to finalising a deal to build a COVID-19 quarantine facility on federal land near Avalon airport.
The federal government is expected to contribute $200 million to the cost of the hub, which will be able to accommodate 500 people at a time. The federal government sent a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to its Victorian counterpart on 3 June, but a number of issues regarding the facility are still to be resolved – the biggest being that the federal government still wants people quarantining in hotels.
From The Australian:
Under a memorandum of understanding sent to the Victorian government, the state would be required to pay for the costs of operating the centre. Construction of the facility would commence by September, with an opening expected in January…
The Australian understands the Morrison government wants the facility to be used for extra capacity to accommodate returning travellers from overseas on top of hotel quarantine, while Victoria is arguing it should be used to house high-risk people from hotel quarantine…
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said on Thursday the decision to fund the new facility in Avalon was not an admission that hotel quarantine was insufficient.
He added that more than 99 per cent of people who had passed through hotel quarantine had done so safely.
“It’s about creating additional capacity,” Senator Birmingham told the Ten Network.
The suggestion by Simon Birmingham that hotel quarantine is effective is laughable given nearly every hard lockdown across the nation has been caused by breaches.
As noted by academics at The Conversation, hotel quarantine has caused an unacceptably high “1 outbreak for every 204 infected travellers” due to their “shared spaces and inadequate ventilation systems”:
Our analysis shows for every 204 infected travellers in hotel quarantine in Australia, there is one leak.
We have known since August 2020, through the World Health Organization, of the risks associated with quarantine in hotels with their shared spaces and inadequate ventilation systems.
Over the past ten months, a plethora of epidemiologists, public health experts, engineers and state premiers have consistently highlighted the shortcomings of a hotel-based quarantine system and the need for purpose-built facilities.
These calls have been largely ignored by the federal government, which continues to consider the current hotel-based quarantine system as “fit for purpose” and “a system that is achieving 99.99% effectiveness” and is “serving Australia very well”…
We identified 21 failures that have occurred between April 2020 and June 2021 in Australia:
- three in Queensland
- eight in New South Wales
- two in South Australia
- five in Victoria
- three in Western Australia.
One of these caused more than 800 deaths and the most recent is causing the current lockdown in Victoria…
This doesn’t sound like a system that is 99.99% effective…
Australia’s quarantine system is our first and most important line of defence against COVID-19. If it’s not improved, the risk of outbreaks will increase…
Every state and territory should be equipped with Howard Spring-style facilities, with outdoor-facing cabins with free-flowing air…
Quarantine system failures can be very costly in terms of health, lives and economic impacts. The likely economic cost of the current outbreak in Victoria, A$1 billion or more, is enough to build two or more new facilities.
Blind Freddy, but not the Morrison Government, can see that quarantine must be shifted out of hotels into purpose-built federal facilities like Howard Springs near Darwin (pictured below).
The spacing of guests and abundant fresh air makes Howard Springs the ideal quarantine facility.
These types of dedicated quarantine facilities offer major benefits over conducting quarantine in capital city hotels, including:
- They are located away from major population centres;
- They provide abundant fresh air and space between guests and staff; and
- They provide greater comfort than being stuffed into a hotel room for two weeks.
The costs of shutting down major cities centres due to regular quarantine breaches far outweighs the cost of building and operating these dedicated facilities.
Federal facilities like Howard Springs should be built in every jurisdiction across the nation and be used for quarantining all international arrivals.
Sadly, rather than taking decisive action, the Morrison Government would rather deflect to the states via lies and spin.
