The head of COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria, Emma Cassar, says there is "no evidence" that a guest at the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn told her team he had the nebuliser that has been blamed for the current coronavirus outbreak.
The state's health authorities have maintained that the nebuliser, a medical device which vaporises medicine, was used by a quarantine hotel guest without the knowledge of the quarantine system's managers.
However, the man, who has remained anonymous, reportedly told The Age from his bed in hospital that he had been given permission on two occasions to use the device.
Ms Cassar said the man was "not lying", but she stood by the health authority's account at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
"I can categorically say that there is no evidence from our audit that he has raised this with our health team or our operational team," she said.
"But again, this argument of 'he said she said'; that's been our report.
"Again, no-one is going to win from this argument where we're constantly having a battle on these matters which are so private for somebody."
Fourteen coronavirus cases have now been linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak, prompting the State Government to declare a five-day snap lockdown.
The man was one of three family members who were staying at the hotel after returning from overseas who tested positive for the coronavirus.
He was later admitted to intensive care.
The Age reported that the 38-year-old Victorian man, who has chronic asthma, said he had declared his nebuliser to hotel quarantine staff and they even offered to get him more Ventolin.
He said he had felt like a criminal after reading media reports last week.
'I can't explain the difference of information'
Ms Cassar said devices like the nebuliser had been picked up in the past during the health checks guests underwent when they arrived at the hotels.
"I can't explain the difference of information," she said.
"What I can do is say that I don't agree with people talking about this poor individual and their family circumstances in this way. It is awful for them."
She said she was sorry "for his treatment" and the incident was "not anyone's fault".
"No one did this deliberately, no one did this maliciously," she said.
"This was an incident that no-one knew about until after it occurred.
"Had we known about it we would have done something earlier.
"The first time we knew about this was the notification from the Alfred [Hospital] and we started to take all the necessary steps and seek advice from public health at that point."
