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Government Sneezes On SARS Protection
Michael Danby - Opposition Whip
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Media Statement - 1 April 2003
Michael Danby, the Federal Member for Melbourne Ports, has accused the government of failing to provide adequate screening for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) at Melbourne Airport and other airports around Australia.
"Today's confirmation of a SARS case in New South Wales shows that there is inadequate screening for symptoms in people arriving from infected regions," Mr Danby said today.
The first media reports of SARS was on March 17, 2003. A warning by the Department of Health about SARS on March 22nd followed this. It took until March 27th for the Chief Medical Officer to issue a travel warning. However, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade took a further day and a half to issue a travel warning.
"Yet, it took the government until this afternoon to introduce any inspection or screening regime for incoming passengers. As late as this morning people arriving from Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong and other infected regions did not go through even the most basic of screening for SARS symptoms." Mr Danby said.
Mr Danby spoke to the SARS Hotline, set up by the Department of Health on the morning of April 1. "They informed me that there was no information about screening incoming passengers, there was no standard or regime – they are still working on it."
"No government agency is prepared to take responsibility for screening incoming passengers. Customs passed the buck, Quarantine passed the buck, Health passed the buck, Transport passed the buck, CASA passed the buck. This hot potato will have completely cooled down and gone stale before anybody takes any responsibility." Mr Danby said. This government has been asleep at the wheel on SARS, there seems to have been no co-ordination between the various government departments. There needs to be a whole-of-government response to SARS, and instead we have a hole in the government response!" Mr Danby said.
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