Coronavirus, Hotel Quarantine

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding COVID-19. In view of Professor Spurrier's revealing publicly that she had concerns about hotel quarantine during the past fortnight, did the Chief Public Health Officer raise these with you? If so, what was then done to improve the safety of the hotel quarantine system?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:38): If the honourable member had read the comments in context, or perhaps at least their staff member in writing the question had read the comments in context, the particular issue that Professor Spurrier was referring to was the increasing positivity rate of incoming international travellers. This is hardly surprising. We've got a pandemic raging around the world, raging in countries that we would regard as our peers—the United Kingdom, the USA.

I must admit in the last couple of days I haven't seen the US rates, but my recollection was that on US election day they had 100,000 new cases. The latest figures I heard were something in the order of 160,000 new cases. These are extraordinary figures. The Hon. Frank Pangallo unfortunately has informed me that it's up to 200,000 cases a day.

These are very concerning figures. Professor Spurrier certainly has highlighted to me the increasing prevalence of the infection overseas. The fact is that we've got thousands of Australians that we are bringing back to Australia from these environments, not just environments where we might think health concerns might normally emanate but from traditional First World health systems. We are certainly seeing an increase in the positivity rate of incoming travellers. That, of course, is a challenge. These facilities were built as hotels. They weren't built as hospitals, and we are dealing with a very infectious virus, so I can understand Professor Spurrier's concerns.