The manager of quarantine hotel contracts in Victoria has said he did not receive specific advice on cleaning requirements until mid-June, after Covid-19 breaches had already occurred in the program, the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry has heard.
Unni Menon, the executive director of the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR), said in his submission to the inquiry that although the contracts for hotel quarantine beginning in late March had a requirement for cleaning to be “to a standard consistent with the most recent recommended public health standards in respect of Covid-19”, no information was provided from the department to the hotels about those standards early on.
He said the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provided a leaflet on Covid-19 for hotels and staff, but that was not forwarded on because the hotel association said they already had the information.
In emails read out at the hearing by Arthur Moses SC, acting for Unified Security, Menon had sought clarification from DHHS on April 1 for specific advice on hotel cleaning because hotels were seeking clarity on the requirements.
Menon, who was seconded from aviation strategy in the department in March, said it wasn’t until 17 June that DHHS provided a document on cleaning and disinfection procedures for quarantine hotels and quarantine red hotels (where Covid-positive people are held), and required DJPR to distribute it to the hotels and make sure they understood it.
In the hearing on Monday, Menon said he couldn’t say whether or not the cleaning requirement of the hotel contracts had been satisfactorily met prior to 17 June, stating it was not something he was actively administering.
“A lot of the day-to-day issues were actually managed on the ground between the onsite management teams from both DHHS and DJPR and the hotels,” he said.
A family of four who tested positive to Covid-19 in early May at the Rydges on Swanston were connected to an outbreak at the hotel where more than a dozen people had tested positive for Covid-19 by mid-June.
Lawyer acting for DHHS, Claire Harris QC, pointed out to the inquiry that specific cleaning information, including for hotels, was available on the DHHS website from 22 March, and two cleaning protocol documents were sent by DHHS to another person in the department on 8 April.
The inquiry continues.
