Top doctor pans ‘faulty’ hotel quarantine system

The head of the doctors’ union in Western Australia has slammed state and federal governments for persisting with ‘‘faulty’’ hotel quarantine.

Australian Medical Association state president Andrew Miller said innocent people who were arriving without coronavirus were being infected in quarantine.

Miller described the system as an abuse of human rights.

‘‘The issue is that hotel quarantine isn’t fit for purpose,’’ he told ABC radio yesterday.

Miller said federal experts were being ‘‘grossly negligent’’ and urgent change was needed.

‘‘Hotels cannot be made safe for Covid-19 positive people,’’ he said.

‘‘Governments need to put money into building mining camps – I’m told it can be done within a couple of months.

‘‘And put everyone into N95 masks tomorrow. It’s all lowhanging fruit, frankly.’’

The WA state and federal government are in open warfare over who is responsible for hotel quarantine.

WA Premier Mark Mcgowan wants the federal government to open military bases and Christmas Island to quarantine overseas travellers.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has pushed back against the idea, saying such facilities are not fit for purpose.

But Christmas Island was used in March and April last year for people returning from China and Japan.

Mcgowan also criticised the Commonwealth for allowing so many people to leave the country during the pandemic.

‘‘Many of the people who are Covid positive are people who left Australia recently and went to Covid-laden countries, I’m just not copping that,’’ he said.

‘‘That people recently went to India and come back Covid positive, and then we have incidents like this occur, and then somehow the Commonwealth says that’s OK. It’s not OK.

‘‘If you want to go overseas, it should be for only the most extraordinary of reasons at this point in time. Not to go overseas for a wedding. Even to go overseas for a funeral. We have to be a lot tougher in relation to letting people out of Australia.’’

Metropolitan Perth and the neighbouring Peel region are in a three-day lockdown after Covid19 cases linked to the Perth Mercure Hotel.

There were no new locally acquired cases reported in WA on Sunday, but two new infections were recorded among returned travellers in quarantine.

More potential exposure sites have been added to the WA community warning list. – AAP