Quarantine Hotel Guards Sleeping with Guests, Australian Police …

MELBOURNE – Police Australia hold investigations into alleged security breaches at Melbourne hotels used to quarantine arrivals from abroad, including claims of guards sleeping with guests.

Meanwhile, Australian health authorities are investigating whether the violations have caused a surge in cases Corona virus in the second largest city in the country.

Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said he supported the investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by guards employed by security companies contracted by the Victorian state government.

“If the allegations are proven to be true, the authorities should ‘throw the book’ at those responsible,” he said in an interview with Sky News quoted Strait Times, Thursday (2/7/2020).

Among the allegations revealed by the Herald Sun newspaper were security companies who were accused of having shifted out of work, which caused a lack of staff. The companies are also suspected of allowing misuse of personal protective equipment, not providing adequate training on infection protocols, and allowing quarantined families to visit other people.

“It is very important that investigations into alleged violations continue independently so that mistakes do not recur,” state Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. television interview

“We cannot go back, we cannot change beyond the very important reforms and changes that have been made right across the journey,” he added.

“We have more staff there who come from different places. We are confident today that the challenges that occurred a few weeks ago will not be repeated,” he said.

The state of Victoria for more than two weeks experienced a double digit increase in new cases daily Covid-19 after restrictions on social distance subside. These conditions endanger the economic recovery and encourage other countries to postpone plans to open their borders.

Finally on Wednesday, Victoria reported 73 new cases of infection in the previous 24 hours while most states and other territories recorded only a few, if any, community transmissions for weeks.

This outbreak has caused Andrew to order 10 regions in Melbourne to re-enact lockdown (lockdown) over the next four weeks.

(ber)

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