Victoria’s largely successful home quarantine program could be “repurposed” to allow returned travellers to self-isolate at home when returning to Australia, an epidemiologist says.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) was considering the idea of home quarantine, as the country looked to open up the borders with “safe” locations like New Zealand or parts of the Pacific.

Since late March, returned travellers have had to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine to stop COVID-19 from spreading in the community.

An inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine system found the system failed to protect the community and led to hundreds of deaths.

But before there was hotel quarantine, people were required to remain in self-isolation in their own homes.

Catherine Bennett, the chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Melbourne, said initially the program was thought to be “unreliable” because many people could not be found at home when they were doorknocked by ADF and health officials.

But she said that did not turn out to be the case.

“It turned out … a lot of that actually was people didn’t come to the door or people were, legally, at their other address, not the address where they were knocking on the door,” she told RN Drive.

Professor Bennett said the program was actually very effective. There were no large outbreaks of coronavirus in the first wave and the virus was largely contained.

She said home quarantine could be made even safer today using manpower and technology.

“We do have these processes in place for large numbers of people in Melbourne that could then be repurposed to allow people, particularly from low-risk countries coming back to Australia, to take over that part of our home isolation program,” she said.

“If it means people can come home and be in their own homes then I’m sure that in itself could lead to quite good compliance.”

Using technology and the threat of fines to make the system safer

Western Australia is easing its tough border restrictions and from October 5 will allow people who enter the state from Victoria to complete 14 days of self-isolation at a suitable premise like a house.

Premier Mark McGowan said the changes reflected updated health advice.

Western Australian police officers are using a new app called G2G Now, which uses facial recognition and location data tracking, for quarantine checks.

Professor Bennett said that could be used in a wider context to enforce home quarantine.

“It’s great if WA is going down this path because they can evaluate how this works,” she said.

She said if we know these apps work then that is exactly what could make home quarantine a “safe option”.

“The whole idea that someone could knock on your door and there are serious consequences, could further make the program work,” she said.