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Security guards at SA medi-hotels stood down, sacked over breaches

Dozens of security guards working at South Australia's medi-hotels have been stood down or sacked over alleged breaches such as sleeping on the job.

Ninety-four private guards were stood down for various offences including not wearing PPE and falling asleep while on duty, according to South Australia Police figures.

Five others were terminated, including one who falsely claimed to be a member of the defence force and another who smelt of alcohol on the job.

READ MORE: Victorians facing long testing queues as state works to contain coronavirus outbreak

READ MORE: NSW records 11 new COVID-19 cases, eight locally acquired

SA Chief Public Health Officer urged anyone who has arrived in the state to stay across the growing list of exposure sites on the Victorian website - and quarantine or get tested if advised to by authorities.

"When you're looking at 99 breaches and you're looking at people falling asleep on the job, that doesn't look like a gold-class system to me," SA Shadow Minister for Health Chris Picton said today.

MP Rob Lucas defended the system.

"Five serious instances where I think there were terminations that have been instanced is an example of the system working and working relatively effectively."

While there were no new cases of coronavirus in South Australia, residents have been warned not to travel to Victoria, and the border remains closed to NSW.

South Australians have been told to rethink their travel plans to Victoria as a cluster in the state grows.

The Chief Public Health Officer urged anyone who has arrived home to stay across the growing list of exposure sites on the Victorian website — and quarantine or get tested if advised to by authorities.

An international arrival has become the second person in the state found to have the highly transmissible UK-strain of the virus.

https://twitter.com/SAPoliceNews/status/1345565040183660545

They were hospitalised after testing positive but have now returned to a medi-hotel.

The SA government also warned anyone entering the state to apply for a permit a week in advance and not once they arrive.

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Why Victoria is struggling with COVID testing

Victorians are waiting hours just to be turned away from testing clinics as the state works to contain another coronavirus outbreak.

People rushed back from interstate last week as borders were being closed once again, but it has put pressure on the healthcare system.

"We've come back because they closed the border, so we rushed back and left our families behind on New Year's," one couple told 9News.

READ MORE: Victoria records three new locally acquired cases

There are long testing queues across Melbourne and Victoria.

"We're supposed to get tested as their regulation, and for two days now we've been turned away."

The state's COVID-19 response commander pleaded for patience as testing staff are brought back from leave.

"I am going to ask people to continue to persevere with us. That's why we've got probably an extra 30 per cent capacity in today compared to yesterday at our biggest centres," Jeroen Weimar said.

People rushed back into the state when borders were being closed once again, but this is putting pressure on the healthcare system.

Opposition leader Michael O'Brien described the long queues and testing clinics over capacity as "an absolute shamble".

"We're seeing the wrong information being provided to people who have returned to Victoria. The government needs to fix this and fix this quickly," he said.

Today Victoria reported three new locally acquired cases from 22,477 tests. All three are linked to the Black Rock cluster which now stands at 21.

Thirteen cases attended the Smile Buffalo Thai restaurant on December 21, and the other eight are close contacts.

People say they have been turned away from clinics days in a row.

But Victorian health officials are still working to track down the source of the latest cluster.

"We're looking at several lines of investigation, including one person who had been in Sydney, but outside the northern beaches area," Professor Allen Cheng said today.

Of the cases, 220 close contacts are in quarantine with another 359 secondary close contacts also told to isolate.

"With this number of close contacts, we're expecting at least some of them will become cases over the next week or so," Professor Cheng said.

There are now 51 potential exposure sites, for the full list of exposure sites in Victoria, click here for the DHHS list.