Legal challenge threatens Open plans

PREPARATIONS for this year’s Australian Open will ramp up this week despite a pending legal challenge against hotel quarantine arrangements for tennis stars and their teams.

Four Melbourne hotels will serve as quarantine bases for non-symptomatic players and entourages for the mandatory 14-day period before they are cleared to take part in the tournament next month. But a legal challenge from highprofile residents of the Westin Hotel has been flagged amid anger over a lack of consultation to use the hotel as a quarantine base.

A COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria spokeswoman said staff would be setting up operations at the hotel this week.

“We’ve assessed the suitability of hotels being used for the Australian Open and introduced significant infection prevention and control measures to protect residents, staff and the Victorian community. These measures have been approved by the Chief Health Officer,” she said.

“The existing residents at The Westin Melbourne will be completely separate from the quarantine program and will have no contact with staff or residents. There will be a separate entrance, dedicated lifts, exclusive floors with no shared common spaces and no shared ventilation between the floors.

“This is in addition to strict safety measures in place at The Westin Melbourne, with floor monitors stationed on every floor, a 24/7 Victoria Police presence, daily staff testing, pre-emptive contact tracing, stringent PPE use and infection prevention and control processes embedded throughout the program.”