Hotel Quarantine for COVID 19

[lovetravellingoz]

A new thread specifically for Hotel Quarantine for COVID 19 Topics​

Anything from international arrival caps, to types of facilities....... to double standards.​

Victoria recruits more hotels for quarantine ahead of expected boost to arrivals cap​

By Michael Fowler​

January 22, 2021 — 11.45pm

More hotels will be contracted to house people in quarantine ahead of an expected jump in the number of Australians landing in Melbourne from next month.

The Age can reveal the Andrews government has asked the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Melbourne’s CBD, which has 160 rooms and operated as a quarantine hotel from July until the government stopped using it in October last year, to prepare to host quarantine guests again from next month.

A government spokeswoman confirmed details of the new hotels would be announced once plans to expand the international arrivals cap were finalised.

etc

Victoria recruits more hotels for quarantine ahead of expected boost to arrivals cap

The Andrews government is recruiting hotels in addition to the 11 already operating with the number of Australians allowed to land in Melbourne set to climb next month.

www.theage.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hotel staff in firing line if quarantine moved to regions, industry warns​

By Stuart Layt​

January 22, 2021 — 9.00pm

The Queensland Hotels Association has raised concerns that moving the state’s hotel quarantine system to the regions would mean hotels that are currently used for quarantine would have to lay off staff.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has pledged to draw up a formal proposal for moving the state’s quarantine system away from built-up centres after officially floating the idea at the national cabinet meeting in Brisbane on Friday.

The Queensland government says the risk of a potential quarantine breach, especially in light of the more contagious UK strain, means hotel quarantine in congested areas is rapidly becoming unfeasible.

But making a submission to a parliamentary committee hearing on Friday, the association’s chief executive, Bernie Hogan, said taking hotel quarantine away from cities would have unintended consequences.

“We have to realise that the accommodation industry in Queensland, regardless of what we are hearing reported in the media, is running at about a 10 to 15 per cent occupancy rate. No business can run at that level for long,” Mr Hogan said.

“Those accommodation members who have contracts right now will be affected, and they are some of the few ones that employ staff.”
Brisbane was thrown into a sudden three-day lockdown earlier this month and saw restrictions such as mandatory mask wearing in place until Friday morning as a result of an outbreak of the UK strain at Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor.

Mr Hogan argued that far from running out of control, the cluster was limited to just six cases, which he said was a testament and warning for the state’s health authorities.

“Queensland has been exceptional in containing the virus. The UK virus didn’t escape, [the quarantine] was run well,” he said.

“So I think we have to stop pointing the finger saying ‘watch out’. We need more carrot and less stick, otherwise you will lose public commitment to it.”
The QHA represents hotels, motels, convention centres and other accommodation providers across the state, as well as pubs and clubs.
Mr Hogan said that after a year of living under the pandemic, many venues were teetering on the brink.

While venues would be dealing with the tail end of school holiday accommodation and looking forward to business accommodation moving in to fill the vacancies, that was not happening this year due to interstate movement restrictions.

He said many venues were facing the prospect of single-digit occupancy all the way to Easter and beyond, which would result in a number of them shuttering if nothing more was done to help.

Mr Hogan was speaking at the public hearing of the parliamentary committee overseeing the extension of the Chief Health Officer’s emergency powers, granted to her last year to make public health directions during the pandemic.

etc

Hotel staff in firing line if quarantine moved to regions, industry warns

The Queensland Hotels Association says staff at city hotels could be sacked if a plan to move COVID quarantine to the regions gets the nod.

www.brisbanetimes.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Australia's hotel quarantine exemptions explained: Who can get them, what are the reasons, and who is making the decisions?​

7.30
/
By Nadia Daly

Epidemiologist slams double standard around hotel quarantine exemptions

As those entering Australia from overseas face a fortnight of quarantine in designated hotels, exemptions granted to diplomats, air crew and even Hollywood celebrities are criticised by an eminent epidemiologist.

www.abc.net.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Pacific Island workers bound for Victoria to complete coronavirus quarantine in Tasmania under state deal​

Seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands will be allowed into Victoria under special quarantine arrangements after a deal was struck between the state and Tasmania.

But with huge gaps in the workforce remaining, Victoria's Agriculture Minister has called for the Federal Government to provide JobSeeker support for short-term farm workers.

Under the deal, announced after Friday's National Cabinet meeting, Tasmania will quarantine the 1,500 workers for two weeks before they are allowed onto Victorian farms.

In exchange, Victoria will take Tasmania's 330-person commitment for returned travellers in Melbourne hotels.

It means Tasmania will no longer accept repatriation flights of Australians stranded overseas.

The cost of the workers program will be shared by industry and the Victorian Government.

Tasmania will contribute to the cost of hotel quarantine in Melbourne.

etc

Victoria to receive 1,500 seasonal workers after striking quarantine deal with Tasmania

About 1,500 seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands will be allowed into Victoria under a deal that will see them quarantine in Tasmania, but there are calls for more to be done to incentivise Australians to take up farm work.

www.abc.net.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

It is worth noting that in New Zealand after a steady stream of Quarantine/Seaport breaches that generated some local community cases that they now have not had a local community case for just over two months.

So they have clearly been able to tighten up their Hotel Quarantine to prevent community cases as they have had steady stream of cases in HQ of those in quarantine.

COVID-19

About the Ministry of Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our long-term management strategy.

www.health.govt.nz

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Victoria recruits more hotels for quarantine ahead of expected boost to arrivals cap​

More hotels will be contracted to house people in quarantine ahead of an expected jump in the number of Australians landing in Melbourne from next month.

The Age can reveal the Andrews government has asked the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Melbourne’s CBD, which has 160 rooms and operated as a quarantine hotel from July until the government stopped using it in October last year, to prepare to host quarantine guests again from next month.

A government spokeswoman confirmed details of the new hotels would be announced once plans to expand the international arrivals cap were finalised.

etc

Victoria recruits more hotels for quarantine ahead of expected boost to arrivals cap

The Andrews government is recruiting hotels in addition to the 11 already operating with the number of Australians allowed to land in Melbourne set to climb next month.

www.theage.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Proposals like the one below is what we need to get up. Wagners are smart and innovative operators and a company that I have had dealings with for decades.

This seems to be a very well thought proposal.

Wagners propose Queensland coronavirus quarantine facility near Wellcamp airport west of Toowoomba​

A coronavirus quarantine facility in southern Queensland has been put to the State Government in a detailed proposal, the ABC can reveal.

Construction firm Wagners has submitted the plan to use its Wellcamp airport, just west of Toowoomba, as the landing point for some of the Australians stranded overseas.

Chairman John Wagner revealed the idea for a 1,000-room quarantine facility to ABC News, which would need to be built from scratch on vacant land close to the airport.

He said arriving passengers would be transferred there by bus.

"We believe that it's a much smarter and safer and cost-efficient operation than what they've currently got going."

"We can get them off the plane and be in their accommodation facility in less than five minutes," Mr Wagner said

Owners of private Queensland airport offer to build quarantine facility west of Brisbane

The ABC can reveal detailed plans for a quarantine facility near Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. The family behind the Wellcamp Airport is behind the proposal and it says the facility could be built within weeks.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Radio8tiv]

Quarantining Australians sound the alarm on ordinary guests staying at COVID-19 hotels

James Whitehouse was doing his two weeks of quarantine in a Perth hotel when he realised people coming back from overseas weren't the only guests.

www.abc.net.au

Looking at going on a holiday to Perth later this year, and would like to stay in a luxury hotel but looking at this and the Facebook posts and other reviews of the hotels I would like to stay, it looks like they are all being used for quarantine also.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Quarantining Australians sound the alarm on ordinary guests staying at COVID-19 hotels

James Whitehouse was doing his two weeks of quarantine in a Perth hotel when he realised people coming back from overseas weren't the only guests.

www.abc.net.au

Looking at going on a holiday to Perth later this year, and would like to stay in a luxury hotel but looking at this and the Facebook posts and other reviews of the hotels I would like to stay, it looks like they are all being used for quarantine also.

Crown Towers would be a good choice, I don't believe that has at any point been used for hotel quarantine. Ritz-Carlton may also be one to consider.