‘What’s the plan, Dan?’: Victorians left in the dark about hotel quarantine

With the reopening of Victoria’s borders to international travellers looming, concerns are mounting about hotel quarantine.

The Rydges on Swanston hotel was linked to 90 per cent of second wave cases in the state, but the details of the state’s revamped quarantine program remain unknown.

Neil Mitchell says Victorians need more information, and they need it urgently.

“What is the plan, Dan? You’ve got to tell us this time,” the 3AW Mornings host said.

A man who was quarantined at the Rydges on Swanston hotel, and who gave evidence to the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry, says there’s no excuse for Victoria getting quarantine wrong this time.

“We have the benefit of hindsight. We can look at the mistakes,” Hugh De Kretser told Neil Mitchell.

“Obviously we know that there were serious mistakes that were made. We saw that through our personal experience through the Rydges on Swanston,” he said.

Mr De Krester says better infection control, leadership accountability and an improved risk management process will be the key to ensuring there aren’t future COVID-19 outbreaks stemming from hotel quarantine.

He says a graded system based on COVID-19 system based on the prevalence of the virus in the country travellers are arriving from would be of significant benefit.

UPDATE: Since this article was published Daniel Andrews has confirmed Victoria will use a hotel-based quarantine system only, with no home quarantine component.

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