Contractors at a hotel quarantine facility in Melbourne have been stood down mid-shift after concerns were raised about infection control.
Spotless cleaning staff have been sub-contracted by Alfred Health to conduct cleaning at “hot hotels” in Melbourne, but the workers were also being used to conduct patrols and infection control compliance checks.
The staff at the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf hotel were replaced by police on Wednesday after concerns about infection control were raised.
Police were already overseeing security, but Spotless staff were being used as “non-clinical support”.
The ABC understands their roles included customer service, grocery checks and infection-control monitoring, with Alfred Health expecting the Spotless staff to report any breaches to relevant authorities.
Alfred Health said the staff were not being used as security.
“Under the hotel quarantine program, Spotless provided cleaning, customer service and floor monitor roles at the request of DJCS [the Department of Justice and Community Safety]. They were not providing security services,” an Alfred spokesperson said.
A spokeswoman from Spotless said the company’s staff followed strict infection control procedures in its sub-contracting work for Alfred Health.
“Infection control is paramount and all Spotless staff who work on the program complete mandatory PPE and infection prevention induction training and regular refresher training,” she said.
“One of many additional controls in place includes a requirement that staff must provide a daily declaration that they have not worked at another site in the 14 days prior to commencing their shift.”
Remaining hot hotels ‘run like hospitals’, Premier says
A government spokesperson confirmed the workers had been “phased out” at the hotel, which is part of the reset hotel quarantine program being run by the Department of Justice and Community Safety.
Only COVID-19 positive patients who cannot safely isolate home are staying at the facilities, as international flights into Melbourne remain on hold.
Premier Daniel Andrews has said international flight arrivals into Melbourne will not resume until the final report from the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry is delivered in November.
The inquiry’s counsel assisting submitted to the board last week that the failures in infection control within the previous hotel quarantine program had caused Melbourne’s second wave.
But Mr Andrews has said he is confident in the remaining hot hotels and claims they are “being run like hospitals”.
Earlier this week, the justice department confirmed nine people who worked in hot hotels had contracted coronavirus since late July.
Five of those were Spotless employees. Two were Alfred Health staff, one was a DHHS staff member, and one was from Victoria Police.
The state government said none of those nine infections were confirmed to have been contracted at the hot hotels.
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