AUSSIE STATE MINISTER QUITS OVER FIASCO
Security staff hired by state had sex with those under quarantine at hotels
THE health minister of the state at the centre of Australia’s coronavirus outbreak resigned amid a furore over the bungling of quarantine procedures at hotels.
Jenny Mikakos released a statement yesterday saying she could not continue to serve in Victoria’s state cabinet following comments by Premier Daniel Andrews to an inquiry into the government’s quarantine programme.
While Andrews told the inquiry he didn’t know who made the decision to hire security firms to monitor the quarantine in hotels in the state capital here, he said Mikakos and her department
were accountable for the programme.
Andrews said yesterday her decision to resign was “appropriate”. He announced that Martin Foley will replace Mikakos. Foley is currently the minister responsible for mental health, equality and creative industries.
Mikakos said she never shirked her responsibility, but that it wasn’t hers alone.
Victoria reported 12 new Covid19 cases overnight and one death, while New South Wales registered one new infection. Queensland state reported three new cases yesterday.
Unlike other states, which relied on police or the armed forces to oversee hotel quarantine, Victoria hired private security firms.
Among a litany of problems, the contractors failed to use personal protection equipment, families were able to mix in each other’s rooms, and some guards had sex with quarantined guests, the Herald Sun reported.
Epidemiologist Charles Alpren told the judicial inquiry last month that at least 90 per cent of the state’s coronavirus cases since May could be linked to the hotel breaches.
While the other states and territories have curbed or even largely eliminated community transmission, Victoria’s virus tally has swelled to more than 20,000 — about 75 per cent of the national total.