Almost 100 private security guards at South Australia’s medi-hotels have been fired or stood down for a wide range of shocking protocol breaches, according to police records.
A South Australia Police report recently given to a state parliamentary coronavirus committee, which was made public on Sunday, revealed dozens of guards were stood down for shocking blunders.
The release of the report comes weeks after an outbreak at a Adelaide medi-hotel sparked a temporary statewide lockdown.
One guard was sacked after they were suspected of being drunk as they smelt of alcohol while on duty.
A second was fired after they impersonated an Australian Defence Force officer so they could park at a medi-hotel for free.
At least 94 security guards working at South Australian medi-hotels were stood down over quarantine protocol breaches. Pictured are guests at a medi-hotel in Adelaide earlier in 2020
Another was dismissed after they uploaded a video on social media filmed at a medi-hotel while one was sacked for being disorderly.
The final sacked security guard was caught sleeping on the job while guarding a floor where guests were in government-mandated quarantine.
Australians and permanent residents arriving back into the country have been required to quarantine at hotels since March 20 when international borders shut to stop the transmission of coronavirus from overseas.
Another 22 guards were lucky to avoid the same fate and were instead suspended for nodding off while on the job.
Around 35 were stood down for not wearing the correct personal protective equipment while another 30 were busted using their mobile phones while on duty.
Hotel quarantine protocols have been tightened since almost 100 security guards were either sacked or stood down. Pictured are returned travellers arriving at a medi-hotel for quarantine
South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said medi-hotel protocols have been tightened since the November outbreak.
‘When we previously had security guards sitting for long periods of time, up to 12 hours, you can appreciate how somebody might have nodded off,’ she told reporters on Sunday.
‘We have redone our security model and we have much more roving security, we’ve got state-of-the-art CCTV and infrared sensors as well, to help with the monitoring.’
Opposition spokesman Chris Picton has expressed concern about the police figures in the wake of the November’s outbreak and the recent emergence of UK strain of the virus of a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
‘These are shocking breaches and highlight the risks when we are relying on subcontracted private security guards for our safety,’ Mr Picton said.
‘There’s no doubt you aren’t ‘gold star’ when private security guards are falling asleep on the job.’
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Recently, returning travellers to Australia have tested positive for the mutant strain of coronavirus plaguing the UK and South Africa, reiterating the importance of the quarantine system for keeping the nation’s outbreak relatively small.
The South Australia police report was given to a state parliamentary committee week days after a concerning outbreak in Adelaide. Pictured are guests at a medi-hotel in November
Acting Health Minister Rob Lucas acknowledged the breaches were unacceptable but believes the hotel quarantine system is now ‘working relatively effectively’.
‘I think the fact that we’ve seen this regular reporting of instances … is an example of the system working and working relatively effectively,’ he said.’
‘We have got now a security system which probably avoids all of those instances.’
It comes in the wake of Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program, identified as a key source of the deadly outbreak which spiralled out of control and sparked a second wave.
Private guards were employed as part of the bungled program which sparked an independent inquiry, plunged Melbourne into lockdown for three months and causing the loss of more than 800 Victorians during the state’s horror second wave.
An investigation set up to probe the blunder failed to find out who in the Victorian government gave the green light to hire private security workers, as opposed to trained army or police personnel.
Potential quarantine breaches have also been linked to the recent outbreak on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where 270,000 residents were forced into lockdown.
Almost three weeks on, the desperate hunt to track down ‘patient zero’ continues with health authorities admitting they may never find the source.
South Australia’s chief health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier (pictude) says hotel quarantine protocols have been ramped up in recent months so similar breaches don’t reoccur
A new cluster not related to the Northern Beaches outbreak has emerged in Berala in Sydney’s south-west, which grew to 13 cases on Sunday.
The source is a patient transport worker who drove a family returned from overseas to a health facility.
The worker was infected and passed the virus on to a colleague, who later visited a Berala bottle shop and further spread the virus, it is believed.
South Australia is on high alert following the outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne and reinstated a hard border with NSW last Thursday.
The border with Victoria remains open but South Australians are advised to reconsider any plans to cross the border.
‘I am very hopeful the situation in Victoria will come to an end,’ Dr Spurrier said
South Australia remains on high alert in the wake of recent coronavirus outbreaks in Melbourne and Sydney. Pictured is a patient being swabbed in Adelaide
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