The Australian authorities assured this Monday that the quarantine of the tennis players who will play the Australian Open is safe, after learning that a group of residents of the complex in which the athletes are scheduled to stay are considering filing a lawsuit due to fear of being infected with covid-19.
The Age newspaper reported that the owners of 36 apartments at the Westin Hotel, in Melbourne city center, threatened to sue Tennis Australia for using the building for quarantine. of 14 days of hundreds of players.
According to Tennis Australia's plan, the players, who will be subjected to no less than five tests to detect covid-19 upon arrival in the middle of this month, they will be able to leave the building once, for five hours, to train under supervision and undergo treatments.
The acting head of the government of the state of Victoria, Jacinda Allan, assured that strict measures have been implemented so that the residents of the buildings are not in contact with people linked to the Australian Open.
“There are separate entrances and separate levels, there are monitors on each level. Victoria Police will monitor each location 24 hours a day,” Allan added. in statements on Monday to journalists in Melbourne, in which he acknowledged that it is not in his hands to avoid the legal claim.
Digby Lewis, one of the owners of a luxurious apartment at the Westin, told The Age that at 84 years old he is in the risk group And you wouldn't mind putting in 10,000 AUD (7,707 USD or 6,294 EUR) or 20,000 AUD (15,415 USD or 12,588 EUR) to help in the legal battle.
The Australian Open, which normally takes place in January, was delayed to February 8 after intense negotiations between Tennis Australia and the Victorian government., which is currently struggling to control a covid-19 outbreak after spending more than 60 days without local infections.
The city of Melbourne was the epicenter of an outbreak of covid-19 that broke out due to failures in the quarantine centers of international travelers, This forced the authorities to confine its almost 5 million inhabitants between July and November of last year.
Australia, which is fighting an outbreak of the coronavirus in the city of Sydney, accumulates almost 28,500 cases since the start of the pandemic, including 909 deaths, most of which occurred during regrowth between June and October in Melbourne.
Currently this country of 25 million inhabitants has almost 300 active cases of covid-19, mainly among people who returned from abroad and from infections contracted in Sydney.