Australian Open quarantine plan may face legal challenge

Melbourne

APARTMENT owners on the premises of a luxury Melbourne hotel are threatening legal action against plans by Australian Open organisers to use the hotel to quarantine players ahead of the tennis tournament, which begins in February.

It was reported in the local media on Monday that the apartment owners at the Westin Melbourne said they had concerns for their health and never agreed to international players quarantining at the Westin, and accused the hotel's management of "ambushing" them with the plan.

"It's incredibly arrogant to ambush us this way as if it's a done deal. There are substantive public health and legal issues that have not even been examined," Mark Nicholson, a long-time apartment owner at the Westin, told Fairfax Media.

Hundreds of players are expected to arrive in Melbourne in mid-January and undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine as part of Covid-19 protocols before the Feb 8-21 Australian Open. Digby Lewis, another owner, said: "At 84, I'm in the vulnerable group and it's shocking the way they tried to ram this through without any attempt to consult us. I'm more than happy to toss in A$10,000 (S$10,183) or A$20,000 to help the legal fight; it's bloody shocking."

Westin's management said their "Covid-safe" plan had been shared with the owners' corporation, adding that existing residents would have no contact or staff or guests and would use a separate entrance and lifts.

"Their floor will remain exclusive, and there will be no reticulation of ventilation between the floors," the Westin said in a statement on Monday.

Melbourne, Victoria's capital, was the epicentre of Australia's largest second-wave outbreak of Covid-19, which started at two quarantine hotels for international arrivals.

More than 18,000 infections and nearly 800 deaths have been recorded in Victoria during the outbreak.

The state recorded three new cases on Monday, as the authorities scrambled to trace close contacts from an outbreak that began in mid-December in Sydney's Northern Beaches area. REUTERS