Coping with the coronavirus outbreak

You may have just touched down from an overseas trip or come into contact with someone infected with coronavirus. Now you need to go into quarantine for 14 days with additional restrictions to an already upended lifestyle. What can you do to keep yourself and others safe as you enter a fortnight of further self-isolation?

Source: Getty Images

Fun Chen was visiting family in Hong Kong when the COVID-19 outbreak forced China’s Hubei province and other cities into lockdown.

It was nearly a month before the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic was taking place.

The escalating public health crisis was about to force Australia to close its borders.

Chen and his wife were lucky to find an evening flight back to Brisbane the very day he made the booking. They decided to go into quarantine because they were worried about their child weak immunity.

Finding short-term accommodation for quarantine was a stressful ordeal for the family. It meant repeated rejections and higher rates.

Back then, when most hotels heard that we needed to stay for 14 days, several of them declined our booking. They knew we were coming for quarantine, so they refused to book us.

Chen and his wife were eventually able to secure a room at a holiday park close to home. Their food supplies were delivered at the door by family members.

Source: Getty Images

The Chens are back home now adhering to the government’s social distancing rules.

These days, returned travellers from overseas have no problem being quarantined at hotels, caravan parks, motels or student accommodation.

Expenses are shouldered by the federal, state and territory governments as the hotel sector braces for 70,000 job losses in the coming months.

The only exception is the Northern Territory where single travellers are required to pay $2,500 and families $5,000 to cover the cost of their stay.

A bus waits to pick up guests who were in quarantine departing the Swissotel in Sydney. Source: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Some returned travellers have compared their hotel stay to imprisonment.

Tourism Accommodation Australia's Victorian general manager Dougal Hollis says many hotels are operating on skeleton staff after the occupancy rates dropped sharply from the vicinity of 80 per cent to a meagre single-digit occupancy.

A 70-year-old man went into intensive care whilst on quarantine at a Perth hotel. His deteriorated health went unnoticed for hours due to a lack of medical support onsite.

Hollis says even with a skeleton staff, hotels are supposed to have 24/7 staff onsite proportionate to the number of guests to provide support when needed.

I think hotels are playing an important role to ensure they comply with government’s restrictions. Remembering of course that they are in quarantine they are not actually on a holiday.

With returned travellers only finding out where they will go for quarantine upon their return to Australia, Hollis says guests need to actively monitor their own health and symptoms.

Hollis suggests preparing in advance to keep yourself occupied during the two-week stay if you know you will be required to go into self-quarantine at a temporary accommodation.

A man reacts as he leaves the Crown Promenade Hotel after spending two weeks in forced quarantine in Melbourne, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Source: AAP Image/Scott Barbour

As for those who can quarantine at home, Dr Lisa Sedger, head of the Viruses and Cytokines Biology group at UTS advises older people to keep away from their grandchildren as children can still carry the virus, though they may not develop serious illness.

Some people are only making contact with their grandchildren via their computers or computer tablets, Ipad - just because why put yourself in any chance of a risk of being able to get infected?

The Australian Medical Association’s South Australian branch president Dr Chris Moy says you’ll need to follow self-isolation rules in a shared home if you’ve recently arrived from overseas or have come into contact with an infected person.

If possible, try to stay in their rooms. Try to use different bathrooms, different food areas. But the rest of the family can try and go about their business.

Due to the highly contagious nature of COVID-19, Dr Sedger suggests keeping kitchen utensils that come in contact with one’s face and mouth extra clean and regularly disinfecting common household objects such door handles.

She advises - for example- to use our sleeve to touch the door handle rather than the hand, because we are less likely to rub that back on our face.

Dr Sedger says there is light at the end of the tunnel to increase your movements within a multigenerational household after 14 days.

However, she recommends still maintaining a social distance of 1.5 metres apart and washing your hands regularly.

Dr Sedger says people needn’t be too worried about fresh produce being contaminated as the virus is unlikely to be spread via tap water.

The only way fresh food can be contaminated is somebody who is sick either coughs over food or coughs onto their hands and then their hands are preparing food but the virus shouldn’t really be on fresh food.

If you live on your own, it’s important to maintain social contact online or over the phone. If possible, Dr Sedger recommends getting your food and essential items delivered to your door.

She says the significantly reduced rate of COVID-19 infections in Australia shows the curve has flattened and should give us confidence that the situation is changing for the better.