Department of Health
Summary
Managed quarantine (including hotel quarantine) for international arrivals to Australia continues to be important in Australia’s response to COVID-19. It helps to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and protect the Australian community. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) continues to monitor current quarantine arrangements and look for ways to continuously improve our system, in line with the National Hotel Quarantine principles.
The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA), the Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN) and the Infection Control Expert Group (ICEG) inform this work.
The AHPPC recommends that:
checks, audits and reviews should focus on compliance and identifying existing controls that need to be modified or where additional controls are needed
Date Time
Australian Health Protection Principal Committee statement on Australia’s National Hotel Quarantine Principles
Hotel quarantining was mandated by National Cabinet on 27 March 2020. Australia’s utilisation of hotel quarantine arrangements has proven to be highly successful – approximately 2,200 cases out of 164,714 arrivals have been diagnosed[1] and managed with very few documented transmissions into the community.
Quarantine arrangements have limited the spread of COVID-19 to the Australian community when compared to many nations around the world. However, as transmission of infection can lead to serious outcomes including outbreaks, governments must continue to manage risk to prevent transmission in hotel quarantine.
Throughout Australia’s response to COVID-19, the following reviews relevant to hotel quarantine were undertaken: