Bungled Hotel Quarantine Call Wasn’t Mine, Victoria Premier Says
- Most of state’s virus cases linked to hotel security lapses
- Resurgence of pandemic has sparked criticism, damaged economy
A pedestrian walks through a near-deserted street during lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 25.
Photographer: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
The leader of the state at the center of Australia’s coronavirus outbreak said he doesn’t know who in his government made the decision to hire security firms to monitor quarantine procedures in Melbourne hotels that subsequently failed.
“The decision to engage private security contractors, and many decisions like it, were of an operational nature,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement to the inquiry into his government’s hotel quarantine program. “I believed that those directly involved in the design and delivery of the program would carefully consider infection control protocols as part of their deliberations.”