Inside one of Australia’s super-strict coronavirus quarantine hotels

By Donna Lu

A person riding past Luna Park in Melbourne, Australia

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A week ago, with an expired UK visa and after eight unsuccessful attempts to get home, I finally boarded a plane bound for Perth in Western Australia. I now find myself in quarantine, at the sharp end of the country’s tough policies to curb a second wave of covid-19 cases.

Australia has limited the number of returning passengers since July, after security breaches in quarantine hotels in Melbourne, Victoria, led to another wave of infections. The city went into a second lockdown, imposing some of the strictest …