A guard at a Melbourne detention centre has tested positive for COVID-19, but authorities say he hasn’t infected any asylum seekers being held there.
Victoria’s COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar says the security guard worked on the outside facing parts of the Melbourne Immigration Transit Centre and did not have contact with staff inside the facility.
He says none of the asylum seekers being detained there have tested positive for the virus.
“We’ve of course done the usual full testing regime of both the residents of that centre and the staff that were there,” Mr Weimar told reporters.
“That work started a couple of days ago and we’ve had no positive tests come out of that facility at the moment.”
Meanwhile, an asylum seeker being held at Melbourne’s Park Hotel said an Australian Border Force official had told detainees the guard had not visited the hotel.
“He was like saying one of the staff get COVID but he’s not been here – he didn’t come here (the hotel),” the asylum seeker told AAP.
“And people get very angry here.”
The man said fellow asylum seekers detained at the hotel were worried they were being put at risk as guards there had not been wearing their face masks properly.
The Refugee Action Coalition said it had been told another guard at MITA has also tested positive with at least nine other guards who were working on Saturday afternoon told to isolate.
“The federal and state governments have been warned so many times that it was just a matter of time,” RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said in a statement.
“The federal government ‘s own literature says detention centres are a danger zone.”
“Many detainees have underlying medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to serious illness,” Mr Rintoul said.
“The people in immigration detention should be released. It is a disgrace that they have not been released before this, but it’s time for the government to act.”
The ABF wouldn’t confirm whether a guard had tested positive for COVID-19, but it did confirm that no detainees had been infected.
“No detainee in an immigration detention facility has tested positive to COVID-19,” a spokesperson told AAP.
“Due to privacy, the ABF does not comment on individual matters.”
The ABF said the Department of Home Affairs and its contractors had implemented infection control and outbreak management measures in line with Commonwealth guidelines.·
The spokesperson said the ABF was offering COVID-19 vaccinations to all detainees who wished to receive the jab.
AAP
