SA pair escape WA hotel quarantine in taxi

Опубликованно 22.08.2020 07:55

Police say the women, aged 19 and 22, arrived on a flight from Adelaide to Perth at 8.20pm on Monday but were refused entry because they had not made a prior application.

The sole purpose of their travel was to holiday and visit family, Acting Commissioner Gary Dreibergs told reporters on Tuesday.

The women were directed to quarantine at the Novotel Hotel in Perth until return flights to South Australia could be arranged.

But about 1.30am on Tuesday the women allegedly left the hotel and caught a taxi to a flat in Coolbellup.

Officers arrested the women later in the morning and they have each been charged with failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act.

The incident has prompted a review into the quarantine system in WA, with police officers to now provide additional security at hotels where people who have been deemed “high risk” are staying.

“These women would’ve hit that threshold,” Mr Dreibergs said.

“That’s why we’ve done that assessment now and we believe it’s appropriate that police officers provide additional security at areas where we have high risk people.

“Unfortunately, when we have people like this who do the wrong thing, we have to review our set of circumstances and then we escalate what we do around managing the environment.”

WA Police will change the way they deal with some people quarantining in hotels.

Mr Dreibergs said it was concerning that the women had breached hotel security but would not elaborate further on the details of their escape.

“The women haven’t been tested for COVID, we don’t test people who arrive from South Australia,” he said.

“But we’ve been advised by the Health Department that they don’t pose a significant health risk.”

Mr Dreibergs described the alleged breach as a “very serious matter” and “very disappointing”.

“We establish hotel quarantine to assist our community, it isn't there for detention, and when people do breach the quarantine it really does rock the trust of our organisation,” he said.

Originally published asHow women escaped hotel quarantine

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