'It’s literally like a prison, no backyard, nowhere to go,' said a volunteer with the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency. 'Those people shouldn’t be subjected to that treatment, particularly if they’re not carrying the virus.'
He warned that risks to police could prompt a repeat of the hotel quarantine bungle, in which security guards spread coronavirus throughout Melbourne's northern and western suburbs.
"My understanding has been with the hard lockdown that the additional extra measure and the imposition on rights and liberties is because of infection rates in buildings," he said. He said not all of the nine towers, which are spread across three main sites, had confirmed coronavirus cases. Authorities were still considering how residents might be allowed to leave their flats for fresh air, he said.
North Melbourne public housing resident Idris Hassan also said the decision to lock down buildings without proof of cases was unfair. "It’s not good enough. This hasn’t just sprung up on anybody. Coronavirus has been with us now for four months," he said on Sunday afternoon.
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