Canberra star George Williams has begged for help following his forced hotel quarantine which he compared to a “prison cell”.
The halfback says he and partner Charlotte Lewis were ordered into isolation at the Mercure Welcome hotel in Melbourne’s CBD upon arriving in Victoria after flying in from the nation’s capital.
Williams claims the rules changed within an hour of the couple leaving Canberra and that they had no idea that a 14-day quarantine was necessary until they landed in Victoria.
That prompted the former Wigan star to take to social media to vent his frustration about the conditions of his current status.
“The rooms are very small with a window you cannot open meaning fresh air is unavailable to us for 2 weeks,” Williams wrote on Instagram.
“We are not even allowed to leave the room.
“Sorry but criminals all get 1 hour a day fresh air or allowed out of their cell.
“HOW IS THIS FAIR? This is wrong. Help #freeUS,” he said.
Armed with a photo that declared him a “prohibited person” under the NSW border-crossing permit scheme directions, Williams tagged Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, acting Premier Jacinta Allan, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Virgin Australia in his post and then pleaded with his 35,000 followers for help. Williams also aired his frustrations to his 17,700 Twitter followers.
Victoria shut off its borders to NSW from 11.59pm on January 1, but the Raiders playmaker claims he and Ms Lewis had been in Batemans Bay on NSW’s south coast from December 28 to 30 and that they had not been in one of the hot spots or red zones.
Williams was also keen to stress that the duo had not travelled directly to and from Batemans Bay from the ACT, whilst checking multiple times with the airport to check the border restrictions before leaving.
“This is something we and other act travellers was not aware of and there are many in the same situation as us on the same Virgin Australia flight who can’t understand this at all,” Williams explained.
“Again the airline at Canberra Airport that told us we was safe to travel without any restrictions.”
But, both he and his partner were made to quarantine because they had arrived after the border had closed and had been in NSW during the past fortnight.
All of NSW has now been declared a red zone and northern beaches a hot zone.
