Hotel quarantine is our main line of defence against new COVID-19 cases. So does the system need improving?

As another coronavirus cluster was linked to hotel quarantine, Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly didn’t mince words.

“That is our major risk now of reintroduction of COVID-19 into Australia, as we have seen in Adelaide over recent days,” he warned on Wednesday, as South Australia prepared to introduce some of the nation’s toughest coronavirus restrictions since the pandemic began.

The Parafield cluster, which has grown to more than 20 confirmed cases, is but the latest in a series of problems linked to hotel quarantine.

Victoria’s second wave, for example, was found to have stemmed from failures in the state’s “hastily assembled” system, while nearly 400 returned travellers were removed from a quarantine facility in Sydney…