Health expects $18m hotel quarantine loss

Unpaid hotel quarantine bills could cost the Department of Health $17.7 million, according to its 2021 financial year annual report.

Notes to the department’s financial statement said it had allowed a $17.7 million impairment on overdue bills from hotel quarantine, with $29.6 million owing in total.

A Department of Health spokesperson said the department had not written off any hotel quarantine fees for people who had refused to pay and the $17.7 million listed in the report was a provisional amount. 

The annual report said the department had received $76.1 million in hotel quarantine payments, and $8.1 million worth of fees had been waived due to financial hardship.

It said quarantine-related expenses totaled $209 million for the 2021 financial year.

The figure included $113.3 million for hotel costs and $95.7 million for security expenses.

A total of 37,549 arrivals completed hotel quarantine between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. 

People were charged for hotel quarantine stays from September 23, 2020.

Two weeks of hotel quarantine costs $2,520 for an individual, $3,360 for two people, and $60 for each additional person per day.

The Department of Health spent a total $8.5 billion in the 2021 financial year, up from $7.7 billion in 2020.