Pleas to let baby out of quarantine
A NEW Cairns mum is stuck in hotel quarantine with her nine-week-old daughter despite other travellers being released from hotel isolation a week early.
Port Douglas electrician Rob Hart has not seen his daughter in five weeks – more than half of her short life so far.
He and his partner, who asked not to be named, flew to the Central Coast of NSW so they could be closer to her parents when the baby was born.
Mr Hart flew home by himself on July 26 due to work commitments, and medical advice against newborns travelling on planes meant his partner and daughter did not fly until August 20. Mr Hart completed his fortnight of quarantine at the Pacific Hotel.
His partner and baby have now been locked in hotel quarantine for a gruelling week with health authorities refusing to grant an exemption to allow them to isolate at home.
On the same day the pair arrived, multiple interstate travellers were released from the Pacific Hotel a week early due to an overflow of arrivals.
“They’re letting people out and they’ve basically told her to suck eggs,” Mr Hart said.
“When she first got there, they were going to put her in a room with two windows that barely even opened.
“It was only after she bawled her eyes out and said to send her back to NSW that they found a balcony room.”
Both Mr Hart’s partner and
daughter have had two negative Covid-19 tests since arriving at the hotel.
“We’ve tried everything to get an exemption. It all fell on deaf ears,” Mr Hart said.
“She’s in there with all of these possibly sick people and our daughter hasn’t even had her vaccinations yet.
“They just absolutely don’t care. God knows how they decided to let these other people out after a week.”
Mr Hart has had to shuttle back and forth between Cairns and Port Douglas to drop off deliveries, including a screwdriver so his partner could put together a swing to get a break from cradling her baby.
He was glad a balcony room was eventually found so the baby at least had some natural light and the immense piles of washing involved in raising an infant could sun-dry.
“They don’t really have anything to sterilise things for the baby, and you want to sterilise everything,” Mr Hart said.
“It’s just not good for a newborn baby. And it’s very difficult being so close and not being able to see them.”
Pacific Hotel general manager Tim Moloney said any early releases were a matter for Queensland Health.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service has confirmed 22 people have had early hotel release across the region to date.
The health authority said the one-off measures were only used in extreme circumstances and included the careful selection of individuals who could safely quarantine at home within two hours of their arrival from Melbourne only – or those who had completed seven days in quarantine who returned two negative tests.
By that metric, the mum and bub should now be eligible for early release – although Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s fortnight freeze on interstate arrivals has now removed the arrivals glut.