COVID-Positive Hotel Ready for Guests

International travellers in South Australia who test positive for COVID-19 infection will be transferred to a new dedicated facility from tomorrow, as the Marshall Liberal Government declared Tom’s Court officially open to guests.

It’s expected the 72-bed hotel in Adelaide’s CBD will predominantly house new international arrivals, but rooms will also be available should there be any further cases of community transmission in South Australia, marking a significant enhancement of the State's quarantine process.

Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said, along with tough border controls, the imminent vaccine roll-out, physical distancing, and robust testing, hotel quarantine is one of the most important tools we have in the fight to keep South Australians safe from the spread of COVID-19.

“Over the last few months we have strengthened our State’s hotel quarantine process delivering on our commitment to make the health and safety of South Australians our number one priority as we support Australian citizens and permanent residents to come home,” Minister Wade said.

“All travellers with an active COVID-19 infection will be transferred to Tom’s Court to be managed in an enhanced quarantine environment with a 24/7 nursing and SAPOL staff presence. In some cases, travellers who are close contacts will also be transferred if they are part of the same family.

“The hotel is part of the Marshall Liberal Government’s eight-point plan to improve the State’s medi-hotel system in the wake of the Parafield cluster last November. The importance of a dedicated facility has only been strengthened by recent medi-hotel outbreaks in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne.”

Approximately 16 SA Health and 41 South Australia Police (SAPOL) staff with medi-hotel experience have been selected to work exclusively in the facility for nursing and security purposes.

“Unlike other medi-hotels in Adelaide, where private companies have been employed to provide security, Tom's Court will be exclusively staffed by SA Health and SA Police,” Minister Wade said.

“Across any one 24-hour period, Tom’s Court can have approximately 10 nurses, 24 SAPOL staff, and eight hotel concierge and cleaning staff on site – however these numbers can change depending on how many guests are at the facility at the one time.

“Staff will be not be deployed to other medi-hotels or high-risk environments, including hospitals, aged care facilities and corrections facilities.”

To make the South Australian hotel quarantine process as safe as possible, daily saliva testing for more than 1,000 medi-hotel workers in the State started in January and was fully rolled out by Monday, in addition to receiving PCR testing every seven days.

“Unlike other medi-hotels in Adelaide, where private companies have been employed to provide security, Tom's Court will be exclusively staffed by SA Health and SA Police.”

Deputy Chief Public Health Officer, Dr Emily Kirkpatrick, said after completion of modifications to the facility to meet our stringent medi-hotel requirements, Tom’s Court is now ready to receive guests.

“We have made extensive modifications, including installation of ventilation and CCTV, and improvement to how surfaces and cleaning will be managed,” Dr Kirkpatrick said.

“We have also worked to design the rooms to be as selfcontained as possible to minimise the number of times the doors are open, reducing the risk for potential transmission.

“This week several mock exercises and relevant training also took place with SA Health nursing staff, SA Ambulance Service, hotel staff and SAPOL.

“The process of transferring patients to Tom’s Court is undertaken by SA Ambulance Service with SAPOL supervision, creating a bio-secure zone to ensure that there is no contact with the community and therefore mitigating risk to the community while moving.

“The exercises reinforced our commitment to the strictest infection control measures, with staff undertaking a mock evacuation procedure, a mock transfer of a positive medi-hotel patient to Tom’s Court, and a transfer of a positive patient from Tom’s Court to an emergency department.”

Following a significant increase in South Australia’s COVID-19 response capabilities and with the opening of Tom’s Court from tomorrow, the contract at the former Wakefield Hospital will not be extended beyond 22 February 2021.

The Wakefield Hospital site was contracted as part of our immediate response to COVID-19, in preparation to boost the capacity of the health system if and when it was needed.

The CT Scanner and other equipment currently set up at Wakefield Hospital will be decommissioned and as previously flagged, the CT Scanner will be transferred to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the near future.

The hotel is located on Tom’s Court Road off Halifax Street in Adelaide’s CBD.

Cases diagnosed prior to Tom’s Court being opened will complete their quarantine on the two dedicated floors at the Pullman Hotel.