Page 46 - Peter Collignon News Today

A national audit of hotel quarantine could help us understand what is and is not working across the country and assess sites to see if they're suitable for containing the virus, says one of Australia's leading epidemiologists.

It will be ruinous and unsustainable if Victoria continues to enforce snap lockdowns every time there is a COVID-19 leak from a quarantine hotel, according to infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon. All of Victoria began a five-day snap lockdown in an effort to contain the Holiday Inn coronavirus outbreak and avoid a third wave. There have been 13 cases of the highly transmissible UK strain of the virus linked to the hotel and Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews hopes the lockdown wil...

The WA Government moves to restrict hotel quarantine security staff to one job, a week after the state was plunged into a five-day lockdown when a guard tested positive to COVID-19.

Infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon is warning against “overreacting” to news a New South Wales resident tested positive to the virus after completing hotel quarantine. “The reality is if you have a very low level of infection … then there’s not much virus there,” he told Sky News. “That can either mean you’re in the very early part of your infection and it’s going to get worse, but that seems very unlikely with this person, or it may mean you had an infection...

The WA Government moves to restrict hotel quarantine security staff to one job, a week after the state was plunged into a five-day lockdown when a guard tested positive to COVID-19.

On Monday, company chair John Wagner confirmed the facility would be for-profit and said the Wagner Corporation would have just as much expertise in running a quarantine facility as the Queensland Department of Health. He told the Guardian the idea was still in its early stages and had only been the subject of negotiations with the state government for two weeks. But the Australian Medical Association has raised some concerns about the proposal, which it wants addressed before any decision is m...

Countries grappling with coronavirus should have priority access. The rest of us can wait

Opinions among scientists are split on the effectiveness or benefit of WA’s short, sharp lockdown.

As the sun set on Perth’s third day of lockdown, Victorian authorities received news one of Melbourne’s hotel quarantine workers had tested positive to COVID-19.

McLaws said complying with best-practice airflow standards would help protect workers from any failures of PPE. “If they were non-compliant and pulled their masks down but there weren’t aerosols for them to breathe in then they would not get infected,” she said. She said she was “disappointed” security guards in Western Australia were not required to wear masks when more than 1.5 metres away from a guest until this week and eye protection was not mandated until Thursday...