Health worker says she ‘felt like a sitting duck’ in hotel quarantine

A health worker with more than 20 years experience in hospitals says she “felt like a sitting duck for getting COVID-19” while quarantined at the Stamford Plaza Hotel.

A total of fifteen cases of coronavirus have been linked to the hotel, which has been used to house returned travellers in quarantine.

Another 17 cases have been linked to a cluster at Rydges on Swanston, another hotel housing returned travellers.

Lily, a physiotherapist with a Masters in Public Health, was kept in isolation at the Stamford Plaza Hotel with her two children from May 6 to 20.

During that time, she put in daily complaints registering her concern and wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services. She is yet to receive a response from the DHHS.

Lily told Neil Mitchell the conduct she saw was “distressing” and she believes hygiene precautions were lacking in some instances.

“My concern started on day three and four where we were COVID-19 tested, all of us,” she said.

“Three nurses came around and they pushed the supply cart from room to room. They didn’t change their gloves, masks or gowns, that I saw. They definitely didn’t change them between testing the three of us.

“In a hospital we would have the supply cart of the personal protective equipment outside the room because one of the biggest contaminators is taking something from room to room.”

Lily said she didn’t believe security staff has been properly briefed on limiting the spread of the virus.

“We all had to get in a lift with the security guards,” she said.

“They obviously didn’t have infection control training. They were touching their masks all the time, touching public areas.”

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