Some Australians travellers cooped up in five-star hotels for 14 days of isolation after returning from overseas have complained they are living in ‘quarantine hell’ with no fresh air and terrible food.
Thousands of people flying into Australia have been shuttled to makeshift quarantine facilities as the government turns to law-and-order to fight coronavirus.
With two-thirds of the country’s Covid-19 cases from or closely linked to overseas travellers, vacant luxury hotels are being used to ensure new arrivals are not able to spread the disease.
Returning overseas travellers are ushered into Sydney’s InterContinental Hotel for the beginning of their 14-day imposed quarantine on Sunday
Thousands of people flying into Australia have been shuttled to makeshift quarantine facilities as the government turns to law-and-order to fight coronavirus. Pictured return travellers in Brisbane getting onto shuttle buses to go to hotels for quarantine
Recently arrived overseas travellers get off their bus and wait to check in at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne on Sunday
In Sydney, travellers are being sent to the InterContinental, Swissotel and the Novotel on Darling Harbour. All three hotels are upmarket with starting prices of over $200 a night for standard rooms.
In Melbourne people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests typically pay a minimum price of $233 per night.
The Swissotel on Market Street in Sydney’s CBD is hosting 292 Australians who on Thursday arrived home by plane after disembarking the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship in Hawaii.
All travellers have been escorted to the hotels by border authorities upon arrival in Australia, but won’t have to pay a cent for their mandatory quarantine stay.
In one Facebook group for those quarantined in the Swissotel, members complained about everything from the quality of their free food to the size of their rooms and the fact they couldn’t access Deliveroo or Uber Eats.
Some claimed hotel staff weren’t accommodating the specific needs of elderly people and parents with kids, while others described the hotel as a ‘miserable hell hole’ and said they were being treated like ‘prisoners and refugees’.
But their complaints have fallen on deaf ears, with NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller saying he had little sympathy for people being forced into quarantine while hundreds of thousands across Australia were facing unemployment.
‘The hotels, I will not mention them by name, but they are five star hotels. They are not going that badly. There are people after the bushfires still living in tents and caravans. People are going okay, thank you,’ he said.
The Australian government is paying for all the expenses including transport, accommodation and food.
In Sydney, travellers are being sent to the Swissotel Sydney (left, a standard room) and given three meals every day
Returning overseas travellers are ushered into the InterContinental Hotel for the beginning of their 14-day imposed quarantine in Sydney
In Melbourne people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests pay a minimum price of $233 per night
One unimpressed Aussie quarantined in Sydney said her Deliveroo meal order had been turned away from the hotel as it was deemed a health risk by authorities.
‘There are three security guards on each floor, police guarding the entrance to the hotel and NOW we are not allowed to have anything delivered,’ she wrote.
‘Prisoners get treated better than we do.’
Another person in quarantine said the arrivals were ‘prisoners and refugees within our own country’ and had been stripped of their ‘human right and constitutional rights’.
Another man said the quarantine was not helping anyone, but rather harming people at the hotel.
‘I’m not sure the government are even aware of the conditions and the fact the hotel and medical group assigned to look after as are clearly unprepared and incapable of fulfilling their duty of care to anywhere near a satisfactory standard,’ he wrote.
‘We are still not being fed nutritious food. Or have any choice in what food we eat.’
‘To make matters worse we have now been BANNED from ordering food from outside the hotel. The medic team has deemed this a health risk. What a joke!’
‘Mothers have been separated from their kids with no access to even see each other. One mother has her five kids split into three rooms.’
Returning overseas travellers are complaining about the standard of their accommodation during their 14-day mandatory quarantine. The government is paying for them to stay in hotels including Crown Melbourne (right) and Novotel Sydney (left)
Some people have even taken to having their family send them care packages including junk food and alcohol
Some of the hundreds of Australians stuck in quarantine have complained about the free three meals they are being given every day. Pictured left is a breakfast served at the Swissotel after complaints, and right is pictured before
One person took their complaint a step further, describing the five-star hotel they were staying at as a ‘hell hole’.
‘The way people are being detained is a disgrace to Australia. It will become a blot on your legacy if action is not taken to treat people decently, whose only ‘crime’ was to go on a holiday,’ they added.
Some guests labelled their hotel isolation a knee-jerk reaction to NSW Health’s failure to stop passengers on the Ruby Princess cruise ship which was last week allowed to disembark without adequate checks.
More than 170 Ruby Princess passengers now have COVID-19.
In a letter to guests on Saturday, Swissotel management promised everyone could access three meals per day, some shopping requests, medical services and rubbish and linen collection.
All arrivals must wear masks and gloves when interacting with hotel staff and room doors must be left closed.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Saturday admitted hotel-quarantined arrivals would likely experience a frustrating fortnight but made no apologies for government policy.
Swissotel for the next three months has been deemed a ‘human health response zone’ with heavy restrictions on entry.
‘It will not be perfect and foolproof,’ Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
‘We understand some people have had a very stressful time trying to get back home and we want to consider their position, but we also need to consider the health and safety of eight million residents in NSW and also more broadly, 25million people in Australia.’
One member of the group said her Deliveroo meal order had been turned away from the hotel as it was deemed a health risk by authorities, while the hotel-issued food is poor
Recently arrived overseas travellers get off their bus and wait inside to check in at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne
Australians cooped up in five-star hotels for 14 days of isolation after returning from overseas say they are living in ‘quarantine hell’ with no fresh air or sunlight and terrible food service (Sydney’s InterContinental pictured)