Tough hotel quarantine restrictions for the Australian Open
From Thursday 14 January, 1200 people, including tennis players, their entourages and officials will start arriving in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
All participants will go straight into hotel quarantine for 14 days.
During their stay in quarantine, all arrivals will undergo daily nose and saliva swabs, be accompanied by guards as they travel to and from training and have alarms at all exits in their hotels to make sure they don’t leave quarantine.
Anyone caught not following these strict rules face a $20,000 fine and will be suspended from the rest of the tournament.
The three major hotels that will be utilised for this quarantine program are the Grand Hyatt, Pullman Albert Park and the View on St Kilda Road. Police will be enforcing security to make sure everyone follows the quarantine guidelines.
This week, Victorian Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville revealed all 1200 people would be subject to the "strictest rules for tennis anywhere in the world" in hotel quarantine.
Ms Neville said hosting the Australian Open this year was essential if Melbourne wants to secure the future of the event. She also stated that she was confident this would work in Victoria as they have the most robust quarantine program in Australia.
“We have put in place the strongest, the strictest rules that apply for tennis across the world,” Ms Neville announced at Melbourne Park on Tuesday.
“I mean, there are bubbles that are operating in Doha at the moment, but this is the strictest program in the world in terms of hotel quarantine for our tennis players.”
Despite Ms Neville’s assurances, there are doubts as to the viability of the tournament.
Public health expert Bill Bowtell, of the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute for infection and immunity has questioned going ahead with the tournament in light of the highly infectious mutant strain of coronavirus, known as B117, that is circulating.
"We cannot allow B117 strain to take off in Australia," Professor Bowtell said. "It makes no public health sense to allow 1200 players and staff to fly in for the Australian Open coming predominantly from UK and Europe.
"I would rather those 1000 places … be used for Australians who wish to be repatriated to this country. We are in a critical moment and things have deteriorated quickly and rapidly in the countries where these players are coming from."
However, Ms Neville defended her position saying, "It's not an ongoing 1200 people. It is a two-week program that guarantees the future of the Australian Open for all Victorians into the longer term."
The Australian open will run from Mon, 8 Feb 2021 – Sun, 21 Feb 2021.
Irit Jackson, 14th January 2021
