There is enough evidence to “seriously question” whether lockdowns have been effective throughout this pandemic, says Sky News host Chris Smith.

“Health studies have shown that the virus is definitely more easily spread if you have a population contained indoors and close together,” Mr Smith said.

“But we’ve had other evidence which supports locking down individual hotspots and matching that with intensive testing.

“Today, the Victorian Ombudsman was scathing of the Andrews government for locking down 3,000 people in public housing towers without notice.”

Victoria’s Ombudsman has found Melbourne’s public housing lockdown was in breach of human rights laws.

The Ombudsman subsequently recommended the state government apologise to tower residents acknowledging the impact the lockdown had on their health and wellbeing.

Mr Smith said the Ombudsman has got this “terribly wrong”, and Premier Daniel Andrews was “entirely correct to lockdown an extremely dangerous hotspot”.

“None of this takes away from the fact that the premier’s arrogant attitude towards hotel quarantine procedures and his extended, broad lockdown in the state were gross examples of mismanagement,” he added.