‘Inadequate’: Covid breaches on the rise in Australia’s hotel quarantine

Experts say the current system is bound to leak and might be unsustainable in the face of more transmissible strains such as Delta

Breaches of Australia's quarantine system have substantially increased this year, with data showing there have been as many leaks recorded in the past three months as there were last year.

There have been up to 30 breaches - where a community case of Covid has been traced back to an infection in quarantine - since the system was established in March last year for Australian citizens and permanent residents returning home. Twenty of those occurred this year.