Soldiers have landed in Melbourne to take over Victoria’s revamped hotel quarantine program opening for international arrivals on Monday.
Large numbers of troops in facemasks were seen on Saturday outside the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, preparing to work with Victoria Police at hotels across Melbourne.
Victoria begins accepting international arrivals again on Monday after Premier Daniel Andrews diverted all international flights from Melbourne on June 30 as the state was hit by a second wave of coronavirus.
Sloppy quarantine by private security guards sparked Melbourne’s horror second wave, with 90 per cent of all infections traced back to one family of four who isolated at the Rydges on Swanston hotel.
The state will take no chances this time around, with both the police and the army involved in the rebooted program.
ADF troops from Townsville’s 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, touched down in Melbourne on Friday to support Victoria Police with hotel quarantine
Australian Defence Force soldiers in Melbourne ahead of training to take part in Victoria’s re-booted hotel quarantine for international arrivals
About 150 Australian Defence Force troops will participate in the revamped program with 110 in Melbourne for quarantine compliance management with another 33 in liaison staff roles, the ADF says on its website.
A Defence Force spokesperson said 75 members of Army’s 3rd Brigade flew from Townsville to Melbourne on Friday.
A further 35 members from RAAF East Sale have also been deployed.
The Victorian Government said the military will not be authorised as law enforcement officers, and will not take part in security work or floor monitoring.
The preparations come one day after two Australian-German dual citizens skipped the mandatory 14 day quarantine and flew directly to Melbourne after arriving in Sydney from Frankfurt.
The 53-year-old woman and her son, 15, have so far tested negative to coronavirus.
They flew from Germany via Tokyo, and landed in Sydney on Saturday.
Officers working at Sydney Airport incorrectly processed the two travellers, letting them fly to Melbourne without going into hotel quarantine.
Police escorted the pair to board Virgin flight 838 to Melbourne on Saturday, where they potentially exposed 174 domestic passengers and crew.
Passengers on the flight were ordered to self-isolate immediately after Victorian authorities discovered the pair had failed to quarantine on arrival in New South Wales.
NSW Police have revealed the pair were told to board a bus to start their 14-day quarantine before they informed officers they were booked onto a flight to Melbourne.
‘Police made inquiries as to travel and exemptions, which subsequently allowed the pair to travel to Melbourne on a domestic flight under standard protocols for exempt travellers,’ a NSW Police spokesman said.
‘On arrival in Melbourne, Victoria Health advised NSW Health the pair were not in possession of an approved exemption and had been escorted to hotel quarantine – where they remain.
‘The NSW Police Force has since conducted a review into the circumstances of the incident and identified police had incorrectly allowed the two travellers to proceed to Melbourne.’
The force said it had since reviewed and strengthened its practices at Sydney Airport.
Defence Force troops will work with Victoria Police in the new hotel quarantine program for international arrivals beginning on Monday. Pictured: ADF soldiers and Victoria police in July
The revelation came as it emerged a car rental employee had blown the whistle on the travellers’ potentially disastrous interstate journey.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the employee had noticed at the rental check-in counter the travellers’ plans did not add up.
‘In terms of Melbourne Airport, they finished up speaking to someone who formed the view that this was not as it should be and so there was some good fortune there, and sometimes you need a little bit of that,’ he said on Sunday.
The travellers are believed to have used online services to check in to the domestic flight.
Health authorities in Victoria said the pair have so far tested negative to Covid-19.
‘If in fact tomorrow the international travellers return a further negative test the incubation period and the chain of transmission will have been broken and we will release those close contacts from isolation,’ Victorian minister Martin Foley said on Sunday.
A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the airline had asked NSW Health how the pair arrived in the country without going into hotel quarantine.
The airline also said the plane underwent a deep clean as a precautionary measure.
Australian Army troops in Melbourne came for training ahead of beginning their assistance with Victoria’s new hotel quarantine program on Monday
The Australian Border Force passed responsibility for the travellers’ movements onto NSW’s health body – saying the pair had passed all customs and immigration requirements.
‘From that point the responsibility for passengers passes to state and territory authorities for hotel quarantine and onwards domestic travel if relevant,’ an ABF spokesman said.
‘The ABF will continue to assist state and territory authorities as required.’
NSW Health deferred questions about the matter to NSW Police.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has ordered the Australian Border Force to investigate.
‘There are multiple rings of containment within the quarantine and border system and, ultimately, these passengers have been picked up within those rings of containment,’ he told Sky News on Sunday.
‘But frankly we want to make sure every ring is impregnable, and so we have asked the Border Force Commissioner to work with NSW on understanding the circumstances.’
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews believes it could have happened in the line for the bus.
‘These people, it seems they are in a queue, waiting to get on a bus to go to hotel quarantine,’ he told reporters on Sunday.
‘Next minute they’re not in that queue. They are instead making quite – if you know Sydney Airport – quite an overland journey to get to the other terminal.
‘Tickets have been purchased en route, then they’ve got on the plane and made their way here.’
Travellers waiting at Melbourne Airport to fly to Sydney. Two German dual nationals accidentally flew direct from Sydney to Melbourne on Saturday without doing quarantine
Australian Army troops board buses to Simpsons Barracks, Melbourne, on Friday
Mr Andrews refused to point the finger at NSW Health.
‘We picked it up, we are very grateful that we were able to do that, but there should be no sense of criticism by anybody in our state,’ he said.
The other 128 travellers on board Virgin flight VA 838, which left Sydney at midday on Saturday and landed in Melbourne at 1.25pm have been contacted and gone into self isolation.
‘A comprehensive public health response is under way, including testing and full contact tracing,’ DHHS said in the statement.
‘Anyone who has been at the Melbourne Airport domestic terminal on Saturday afternoon is advised to monitor for Covid-19 symptoms and to seek testing if symptoms develop.’
One passenger who was returning to Melbourne following a work Christmas party recalled how his wife saw a news article about the potential virus exposure before he saw the text message.
‘My wife saw the article first, I hadn’t opened my phone and suffice to say there was a lot of colourful words said,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘My colleague rang up and… basically there was a lot of ‘for f—‘s sake’.’
New South Wales recorded no locally-acquired cases on top of the five in hotel quarantine on Sunday.
Victoria celebrated its 37th consecutive day without any new infections as the state moved to a ‘Covid-normal’ level of restrictions on Sunday.
Pubs, restaurants and cafes will effectively double their permitted capacity with the changes.
Revellers will also be allowed to stand and drink when in outside sections of venues.
The cap on attendees at religious gatherings is also expected to be scratched ahead of Christmas and will instead be replaced with the one person per two square metre rule.
Passengers arrive at Sydney Airport from New Zealand in September. Travellers to Melbourne will soon be charged $3000 per adult for a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine room
On Monday, five international flights from Colombo, Doha, Hong Kong and Singapore will land at Melbourne Airport as the state’s revamped hotel quarantine program restarts.
International flights were diverted from Victoria in June after security guards at two quarantine hotels contracted Covid-19.
The outbreaks sparked the state’s second wave, which resulted in more than 18,000 infections and 800 deaths.
The government announced on Friday it will introduce legislation to charge for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The fees will be set at $3000 per adult, $1000 for each additional adult in a room and $500 for children aged between three and 18 years. There will be no charge for children under three.
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