The time taken to disclose the transmission is a sign of further strain on WA’s public health system, along with the failure to introduce safety protocols already in place in other states. In October, the McGowan government delivered a $1.2bn surplus. It would do well to invest some of it in its health system, the shortcomings of which contributed to the guard moving around Perth undetected for several days. As Victoria Laurie wrote on Sunday: “How could the hotel guard have contracted COVID-19 in a hotel quarantine site? How was he able to move around before his test result was known? Other questions are being asked about why Western Australia, with 10 months’ COVID-free grace, has not learned from quarantine gaffes in Victoria and Queensland by banning security guards from moonlighting in other jobs, especially ones that expose them to large groups.” The guard also worked as a ride-share driver. Hotel guards holding second jobs, Mr McGowan said on Monday, was “a complex issue … we are nearing a resolution … in the course of next week”. Better late than never, the state looks set to ban hotel quarantine workers from having a second job, which is likely to involve additional payments for hotel quarantine work.
The fiasco, justifiably, has prompted Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller to describe the state’s quarantine system as “amateur and ridiculous”. The guard, Dr Miller said, had been “ working in a system that I believe didn’t provide him with enough PPE to protect him from the virus, that did not provide him with adequate ventilation and he was not getting daily testing”.
The lack of daily testing of hotel guards — a move agreed by national cabinet on January 8 — showed negligence and incompetence. Such testing has been in place in Victoria since December 7 and for some guards in NSW since December 14, where it was rolled out across the system in January. South Australia introduced it on January 8, followed a few days later by Queensland. WA’s weekly testing regime — the infected guard last tested negative on January 23 — was upgraded to daily saliva testing on Friday, January 29, Mr McGowan said on Sunday; too late.
Following his bombastic criticisms of NSW, Mr McGowan left himself little room to move in the event of an outbreak. In his hyperbolic style, Mr McGowan insisted “dramatic action immediately” was needed from the outset. It will come at a cost. Time will tell how far the virus has spread. But on the strength of a single case, confining Perth residents to their homes, apart from shopping for essentials and medicine, to access healthcare, to exercise for up to an hour a day or to go to work (wearing a mask) if they cannot work at home, amounts to extreme overkill. Other leaders have resisted emulating Mr McGowan’s penchant for doling out unwanted advice. In NSW, which is bearing the brunt of quarantining returning Australians, Ms Berejiklian said elimination was impossible while the nation was bringing Australians home. Zero community transmission needed to be the goal, risk had to be managed. Until effective vaccines bring the pandemic under control there is no room for complacency. More than 2.2 million people have died from among more than 103 million cases worldwide. But overreactions to a single case, or a handful of cases, do more harm than good.
