Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Hotel Quarantine Under Scrutiny as Australian State Races to Contain COVID-19 Outbreak Phil Mercer SYDNEY - As the Australian state of Victoria enters its third day of a snap COVID-19 lockdown, the national medical association is calling for urgent changes to infection control in hotel quarantine. Australian travelers returning from overseas must go into isolation for at least 14 days on arrival, but doctors are worried that the airborne transmission of the virus is not being taken seriously enough. Biosecurity is a growing concern for Australia's hotel quarantine system after new and highly contagious variants of COVID-19 were detected among returned travelers. A five-day lockdown imposed in Victoria state Friday was in response to a cluster of infections at a hotel at Melbourne airport. Infections were passed from passengers to staff, allowing the virus to spread into the community. The lockdown was ordered to give contact tracers enough time to track known associates of those who have tested positive to the virus. Doctors, however, believe that ventilation and personal protective equipment for hotel workers needs to be urgently reviewed. Chris Moy, the federal vice president of the Australian Medical Association, says bio-security controls need to be tightened. "Quarantine is our first and most important line of defense. There have been holes punched in it, particularly with these new strains. It is not just droplets' spread, which is the big droplets which, you know, you just cough out. It just stays quite local, to this airborne spread where essentially COVID can be taken up as a mist and stay in the air, and therefore be far more infectious for a long period of time," said Moy. Victoria is in its third coronavirus lockdown since the pandemic began. .