Woman flees quarantine hotel

[sprintcyclist]

Western Australia's Health Minister Roger Cook says he is "disappointed and angry" at a traveller who left a Perth quarantine hotel and now faces a fine of up to $50,000 or 12 months in prison.

Police said she was found at a Perth hospital that night and taken into custody.
She has been charged with breaching the Emergency Management Act.
Ms D'Ubios was last seen walking along Adelaide Terrace in Perth's CBD at 10:20am on Saturday, but authorities did not alert the public for more than nine hours after her escape, despite the potential risk to community health.

He also said she had refused to take a COVID test on her second day in quarantine.
"This is the first time that we have had an incident like this with an international traveller," Mr Cook said.
"We have been very successful in containing COVID-19 to hotels, preventing it from breaking out in the community.
"I have asked for a review of the decision not to move [Ms D'Ubios] into a high-risk hotel. The next issue is how she managed to leave the hotel.
"The result of this is the woman is now in police custody and faces a substantial fine of up to $50,000 and up to 12 months imprisonment. The consequences of her actions are significant.
"I am disappointed and I'm angry. I'm particularly angry at the traveller who, by her actions, potentially put many people at risk."

Ms D'Ubios is an Australian citizen who has been living in Spain for several years, working as an alternative health practitioner.
In a video posted on social media at 6:54am on Saturday, Ms D'Ubios said she intended to leave the hotel.
"If they don't remove me from this hotel today, I am going to be walking out of here," she said.
"I'm going to be walking down there, I'm going to be telling those security guards if they lay a hand on me, every single one of them will be subpoenaed and charged."
The Pan Pacific is not a high-risk quarantine hotel, and there was no police guard to prevent Ms D'Ubios from escaping.
In an earlier Facebook post, the woman said she "chose to walk into a hospital and ask them to initiate on my behalf … [for] my health and mental wellbeing".

She said she wanted a "non-toxic safe place to quarantine".
"That's all I am asking for so they don't pump me with antihistamines or allergy drugs to cope with the toxic environment," she wrote.
In other Facebook video posts, she expressed scepticism about coronavirus.
"[The Government] is going to use an army to mass vaccinate you for a 0.03 per cent contraction rate for a virus that doesn't exist," Ms D'Ubios said in one such post.

Ms D'Ubios was refused bail in the Perth Magistrates Court on Sunday and has been remanded in custody until January 4.
Magistrate Brian Gluestein said Ms D'Ubios's behaviour showed "blatant disregard" for the state's pandemic situation.
"This is blatant disregard of the WA legislation and the pandemic situation generally in Australia and internationally," he said.
"Given the conduct of this lady, I'm not convinced bail is at all appropriate."
Defence lawyer Serene Teffaha told the court via audio link that the reason Ms D'Ubios had left the hotel was that she had had a breakdown.
Ms Teffaha said Ms D'Ubios had returned from Spain to look after her daughter, who had attempted to take her own life.

She said her client's medical records had not been forwarded to her as police had promised — police later said they also hadn't seen the records — but that Ms D'Ubios was struggling in hotel quarantine, suffering from numerous allergies.
Ms Teffaha said Ms D'Ubios had been to the emergency room twice since her arrival, suffering heart palpitations and breathlessness.

The police prosecutor said Ms D'Ubios called police just after 10:00am on Boxing Day and threatened to leave the hotel.
She walked out and caught a bus on Terrace Rd towards Fremantle, was at an unknown beach around 1:00pm, and met up with a mother and daughter at a Warnbro address around 9:00pm.
Ms D'Ubios then caught a taxi to Rockingham General Hospital, where she was taken into custody.
The prosecutor said Ms D'Ubios had never made an application to enter the state and had to complete a G2G application at the airport.
Ms Teffaha argued hotel quarantine conditions were impacting many people's health, and that it had impacted her client's ability to make rational decisions.
"I'm very concerned this is being dealt with in a criminal setting when it's a public health issue," she said.
Australian Medical Association state President Andrew Miller said the Government needed to provide a transparent explanation about how hotel quarantine worked.
"Someone here who has obviously flagged their intention to leave has now been able to walk out the front door because they weren't in what's deemed the high-risk facility," Dr Miller said.
"We know that there are going to be uncooperative people, we know that mistakes are going to be made.
"In my job we have to have systems in place that make up for that, otherwise people die.

"Now, unfortunately that's not also the case with hotel quarantine. We have to have systems in place that act as back-ups so this sort of thing just cannot happen."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-27/ ... s/13016230

[Texan]

It sounds like prison to me.

[sprintcyclist]

It sounds like prison to me.

In many ways I sympathise for her

............. said Ms D'Ubios had returned from Spain to look after her daughter, who had attempted to take her own life.

She said her client's medical records had not been forwarded to her as police had promised — police later said they also hadn't seen the records — but that Ms D'Ubios was struggling in hotel quarantine, suffering from numerous allergies.
Ms Teffaha said Ms D'Ubios had been to the emergency room twice since her arrival, suffering heart palpitations and breathlessness. ..............

She has had a hard time.