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South Australia toughens medi-hotel rules

AMA President, Dr Omar Khorshid said South Australia’s plan to move COVID-infected travellers from hotel quarantine to a dedicated health facility has some merit, but will have to be done properly. 

South Australia announced on Wednesday that all COVID cases will be transferred from the quarantine hotels to a dedicated facility — possibly an old hospital — where security will be carried out solely by police and protective services officers. 

“The AMA obviously supports hotel quarantine that is put in place with proper care and highly trained medical and security staff,” Dr Khorshid told the Herald-Sun

“(But) moving people who test positive to COVID-19 from a medi-hotel to a secure facility should only be done if they will get appropriate physical and mental health care in that facility.” 

AMA Vice President, Dr Chris Moy said the proposal to move the patients to a repurposed private hospital would help contain the outbreak. 

“They’ll be managed by specific staff, like SA Police and security staff who will only be allowed to work there. They won't be deployed to anywhere else,” Dr Moy told 3AW

“It’ll basically be a secure facility and positive cases will be taken out to minimise any risk of them maybe spreading to any other returned visitors.” 

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