Hotel quarantine guests’ alleged shocking find in food
CLAIMS of half-eaten meals and rubbish including face masks dumped inside hotel quarantine meal packs have emerged as a Cairns accommodation provider "investigates" the issue.
Mareeba banana farmer Gurtej Singh and Tully resident Lovepreet Singh began hotel quarantine at Holiday Inn Cairns after returning from Melbourne on February 14 and are suspecting fellow guests may have tampered with their meal packs.
On Thursday, the two mates had requested vegetarian meals for religious reasons, and although they accepted meat products in their breakfast and lunch as "mistakes", it was their dinner that left them horrified.
The two men said they would often be distracted by TV or not hear the door knock when the food arrived, and collected their dinner between 7.15pm and 7.45pm.
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"When we opened the bag, there was sap of some sort on the food containers," Gurtej Singh said.
"And when we opened the food, they'd given us chicken breast and rice was half-eaten.
"The main bag had rubbish in it - there was scrunched up alfoil and used face masks (above)."
Mr Singh said he complained to the hotel immediately and was told it would be investigated, but on Friday he said his breakfast container had dead ants inside.
"I didn't hear back, so I called Friday again. They told me 'maybe you just did all this'," he said. "So we asked them to check their security footage, and if nothing came up, then sure, blame us. They did that (on Monday), but they won't show us the footage. They're just saying 'nothing happened outside your room'.
"Obviously we can't be sure, but we think it could be another (guest). We complained to the police, but they said we would have to deal with the hotel staff first, and they would investigate if it became a criminal matter."
The Cairns Post understands the hotel is still investigating but its management declined to answer any questions.
Originally published as Cairns hotel quarantine guests' alleged shocking find in food
