Coronavirus: Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces wide sweeping hotel quarantine review

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced there will be a review of hotel quarantines across Australia.

Mr Morrison said the National Cabinet meeting today has agreed to the review by Jane Halton, the former head of the federal health department and current member of the COVID-19 commission.

It would look at "national uniformity" for the prices charged to people who undergo 14 days' quarantine in hotels as well as training standards for security staff and clinical control workers, Mr Morrison said.

He said Ms Halton's review was important in ensuring strict quarantine standards for when international travel restarts.

READ MORE: Security guard alleges Melbourne hotel quarantine lapses ahead of probe

"She will be undertaking that review working with states and territories and that again is an important step in providing reassurances, making sure that as we look into each of these states and territories and how they are managing the quarantine, and as our country opens up again, with the exception of Victoria, we can make sure we have even greater confidence in those quarantine arrangements as they have been put in place," Mr Morrison said.

Lapses in hotel quarantine management have been blamed for causing the recent spike in cases in Victoria.

The state government's decision to deploy private security guards to Melbourne hotels has been heavily criticised after claims they received scant training and breached multiple protocols.

Alarming allegations have also surfaced that contracted workers also slept with returned travellers isolating inside the hotels. There were also claims security guards had only been given one glove or mask for the entire day on shifts.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said hotel quarantine had worked largely well but one lapse could be "catastrophic" and the review would provide a detailed analysis.

"But this is a way of looking at quarantine in a more detailed fashion and we have given suggestions to Jane Halton about the types of things that we would like to have checked.

"To be clear, there have been a lot of people have come into hotel quarantine. There have been very few breaches but we have seen, as has been reported in Victoria, a single breach, even if it's low risk can lead to a catastrophic outcome."