Today's hotel inquiry hearing is under way. You can watch it live, below:
Pinned post from 9.38am on Sep 16, 2020
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Hotel quarantine inquiry LIVE updates: Email that warned of 'considerable risk' endorsed by Victorian senior public health official; 'compliance and logistics' prioritised over health
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That's a wrap on Day 18
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And that's it from Dr van Diemen. Thanks for following in what has been a huge day. So huge the inquiry couldn't find time for Jason Helps and Andrea Spiteri from the DHHS.
They're expected to be up tomorrow afternoon. From 10am, we'll hear from Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton and his predecessor Graham Ashton.
Keep an eye on theage.com.au this evening for all the latest.
Who was responsible? 'Everybody ... in some way, shape or form'
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Dr van Diemen has been pressed on who was responsible for the implementation of infection control measures in hotel quarantine.
In cross-examination led by Arthur Moses SC, the lawyer for Unified Security, Dr van Diemen said the responsibility was with the emergency operations centre. This centre was made up of a number of representatives from different departments and agencies.
"Is that a serious answer?" Mr Moses asked.
Dr van Diemen said didn't go into granular details such as who might have been responsible on the floors at each hotel.
Health chiefs endorsed continued use of hotel quarantine in late June
By Tammy Mills
Health officers Australia-wide endorsed the continued use of hotel quarantine for international arrivals to Australia in June, the inquiry heard.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, made up of the chief health officers from the state and territories jurisdictions, agreed hotel quarantine had been a key part of Australia's success in responding to coronavirus, the lawyer for Health Department Claire Harris QC read to the inquiry.
The AHPPC also considered home quarantine as another option in its June 26 statement.
There was not enough data to warrant diminishing the use of hotel quarantine, Ms Harris read to the inquiry.
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Some people were released from hotel quarantine while still awaiting results
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Dr van Diemen also said some people were allowed out of hotel quarantine while still awaiting test results.
This was based on a risk assessment of people showing no signs of COVID-19 and only in a small number of instances, she said.
She said anyone who was released - if, for example, they were late into their quarantine and showing no symptoms - had an appropriate location to continue their isolation.
Dr van Diemen said it was determined in these cases that they were most likely non-infectious.
Questions over call to allow COVID-positive cases to leave quarantine after 14 days
By Tammy Mills
Dr van Diemen has addressed the decision to allow COVID positive people to leave hotel quarantine at the end of their 14 day detention.
In the first few weeks of the program, which began in late March, people who didn't display symptoms of coronavirus were not tested.
Before early May, no asymptomatic cases were tested.
However, people were getting released from quarantine at the end of their 14 days even if they had tested positive, so long as they had a safe place to isolate and were cooperative.
Quarantine orders for 20,000 international arrivals 'weighed heavily' on Deputy CHO
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Dr van Diemen signed off on about 20,000 orders to detain international arrivals in quarantine in Victoria.
It was a decision that weighed heavily on her, she told the inquiry.
Dr van Diemen had the job of signing off on the notices given to each person arriving in Victoria from overseas, requiring them to be detained in a hotel for 14 days.
She had to take into account public health factors along with people's human and legal rights.
The inquiry has heard more than 20,000 people went through the hotel quarantine program from the end of March until July.
Dr van Dieman is now getting asked about the hotel quarantine exemption for air crew. She said it was a national exemption and Victoria signed up to it.
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Threat of massive fines didn't deter positive cases from getting "out and about"
By Tammy Mills
People who breached isolation orders weren't issued with $20,000 fines despite admitting they had broken the rules, the inquiry has heard.
This has come up in the questioning of Dr van Diemen, which has focused on the decision to set-up hotel quarantine.
She said she considered home quarantine, rather than quarantine in the hotels, but she agreed with the requirement from the National Cabinet for hotel quarantine from the end of March.
Dr van Diemen said the $20,000 fine that could be issued to people who breached home quarantine didn't appear to deter a "large number of people from breaching that order" at the time.
van Diemen not aware of substandard hotel infection controls until after first outbreak
By Tammy Mills
Dr van Diemen said she called for a clinically-based health expert to be embedded in the hotel quarantine operation.
She agreed with counsel assisting the inquiry, Ben Ihle, that the lack of oversight from the public health team meant that adherence to infection control in the hotels was lost.
The public health team didn't know protective gear and social distancing was not being adhered to by workers in the hotels, the inquiry heard.
"That was something that came to your attention only after the outbreaks had occurred wasn't it?" Mr Ihle asked.
"Yes," Dr van Diemen replied.
Early hotel quarantine prioritised 'logistics and compliance' over health: van Diemen
By Tammy Mills
Dr van Diemen has acknowledged hotel quarantine was run more as a logistics or compliance exercise, rather than a health program.
She said clinically trained personnel should have had more of a role in overseeing the program and on the ground at the hotel sites.
Dr van Diemen said her opinion was made "in retrospect and we know a lot more now."
The inquiry has heard the Health Department had one full-time infection control consultant.
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van Dieman endorsed email warning of 'considerable risk'
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Dr van Diemen says she also endorsed an email from another senior public health official that warned of risk to the health and safety of people detained in hotel quarantine.
We heard about the email earlier. It was sent in early April by Dr Finn Romanes, who was the Deputy Public Health Commander, to the state controller running the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Dr Romanes called for an urgent review in the governance of hotel quarantine, which needed a clear leader and direct line of accountability to the Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr van Diemen.
That resulted in the creation of a public health liaison position to work in Operation Soteria, set up to oversee the program.
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