Ventilation once again at the forefront of discussion., page-4

Holiday Inn evacuated, two schools closed as quarantine case tally grows

A source in the hotel program, who is not authorised to speak publicly about the matter, said the hotel would be closed for at least a week as the ventilation system in the hotel is reviewed.

The state government suspects airborne transmission of the virus has occurred inside the hotel.

Australian Medical Association president Julian Rait has called for the state government to release the results of an audit of the ventilation system in the Holiday Inn before it started housing high-risk returned travellers.

Professor Rait said serious questions remained about whether an adequate examination of the facility was undertaken before the COVID-19 outbreak emerged this week.

“I’d like to see the original audit to demonstrate if it was safe to use in the first place,” Professor Rait said. “We need to see if they have done this, and if not, we need to asking why not?


“We’ve known for a long time, that COVID can be spread through fine aerosols, which basically accumulate in the air, remain suspended for hours,” she told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Wednesday morning.

“The issue though is that we haven’t really seen this addressed in any meaningful way by any level of government.

“It’s been discussed and floated people have talked about it and then danced around it but there really hasn’t been any meaningful interventions put in place to mitigate this risk.”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/two-melbourne-schools-closed-after-quarantine-hotel-cases-20210210-p5712v.html