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Inquiry Probes Australia's Greatest COVID-19 Failure

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - A judicial inquiry in Australia continues to probe failures in
   the nation's COVID-19 hotel quarantine system for returning travelers.
   The inquiry has heard that security breaches almost certainly sparked a
   deadly second wave of infections in the state of Victoria, which is at
   the center of Australia's coronavirus crisis.

   Foreign nationals were banned from Australia when its international
   borders were closed in March. But many thousands of citizens and
   permanent residents have been allowed to fly home, where they face a
   mandatory 14-days in hotel quarantine.

   In Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, the system has
   been chaotic. Members of a judicial inquiry heard that breaches in
   security at two hotels allowed infected passengers to spread the
   disease into the community, causing a second wave of COVID-19.

   Instead of using soldiers to secure the hotels like in other parts of
   the country, Victoria used private security guards. Many allegedly were
   poorly-trained and ill-equipped.

   Victoria's emergency management commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has told
   the investigating panel he thought private companies could do the job.

   "I guess in terms of a view I thought they would have been a suitable
   and appropriate workforce to use in the hotel. I have worked a lot with
   private security and the thinking was that well-trained,
   well-supervised private security in this type of role would have been
   efficient and effective," he said.

   They weren't. The hotel quarantine fiasco in Victoria is considered by
   many to be Australia's greatest failure in the pandemic, so far. Senior
   government, police and health officials, including state premier Daniel
   Andrews, are scheduled to give evidence before the inquiry.

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