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MELBOURNE, Australia, February 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – COVID-positive patients have been seen evacuating from the Holiday Inn in Melbourne with garbage bags covering their heads.
At least one patient was shown moving from inside the Holiday Inn across the sidewalk to a bus holding a large, black garbage bag over his or her head during Channel Nine’s live broadcast of Today.
HAPPENING NOW: COVID-19 positive patients are currently being transferred out of the Holiday Inn, in the heart of Melbourne, with garbage bags over their heads. @ChristineAhern #9News pic.twitter.com/4jQRLZ6GMI
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) February 15, 2021
Patients were escorted to their buses by hotel quarantine staff dressed in full PPE, causing Today hosts to question why a patient with a respiratory illness would further restrict their breathing with a garbage bag.
The next patient to leave the Holiday Inn, however, wore only a mask as he carried his young child into the bus.
Water damage on four levels of the building prompted the transfer of patients from the Holiday Inn to the Pullman Hotel.
Last week, several of 48 patients were also spotted wearing garbage bags over their entire bodies as they were evacuated from a different Melbourne Holiday Inn.
Some Twitter users speculated the most recent incident was more a privacy issue than anything else.
maybe they have full PPE under the garbage bag and the poor individual is just trying to maintain their privacy. very traumatic for them.
— Dr Ranjit Rao (@ranjitrao1) February 15, 2021
It would be so much better if the media would support Victorians rather than act in the way that patients have to protect themselves from cameras using garbage bags. �� @chloebooker @ChristineAhern
— Dr Maria Spichkova (@MSpichkova) February 16, 2021
Others thought it was simply bad healthcare advice.
So what we see in this clip is:
– New isolation 'bags' used instead of masks.
– Policemen wearing inappropriate PPE.
– NORMAL buses, without special isolation booths for the drivers used to transfer possible positive #COVID19 passengers.
Are we in the 18th Century here?@abcnews— PhysicistsOnline (@PhysicistsSpeak) February 16, 2021
The precedent for this behavior was set by UK healthcare workers in April 2020 when they ran out of PPE in the Intensive Treatment Unit.
Soon after, the Miami New Times published a story on weird “PPE” spotted around Miami, including caution tape, an alien suit, and underwear.
Two hotel quarantine breaches and subsequent snap lockdowns in Melbourne have led Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews to consider following in the footsteps of the Northern Territory with purposefully built quarantine camps. The creation of such camps raises numerous concerns about privacy, civil liberties, human rights, and due process.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is considering similar measures.