COVID-19 Primary Care Update No. 122 General Practice Liaison Network, Healthcare Improvement Unit

Sunday 14 March 2021

Good morning colleagues,

Epidemiology • No new locally acquired cases in the last 24 hours • >18,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in

Update – Princess Alexandra Hospital • A junior doctor at the PAH tested positive for COVID-19 on 12 March. The likely exposure occurred while examining two patients who had been in hotel quarantine (positive UK COVID-19 variant) • As a precaution, non-essential visits to hospitals, RACFs, disability services and correctional facilities in , Logan, Ipswich, and Redlands Local Government Areas (LGAs) should cease from 13 March. This will be reviewed Tuesday 16 March 2021. • Anyone entering these facilities must wear a mask • Potential high-risk community exposure sites include Venue name, Suburb Date Time location Morning After 14:00 Café, Thursday 11 West End – cnr Vulture & March 2021 15:15 Cambridge St Corporate Box Gym, 17:45 Thursday 11 East Brisbane, Greenslopes – March 2021 368A Logan 19:00 Road Stones Corner 19:00 Hotel, Stones Thursday 11 – 346 Logan Corner March 2021 19:45 Road • Any individuals who have been in the above locations during the relevant times are asked to immediately home quarantine (until March 25 – 14 days from March 11) and call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84). Contact tracers are also currently contacting people based on details provided by the venues.

PPE Guidance • PPE guidance documents and a memo from the CEQ DDG, Dr Jillann Farmer, are attached. • The following Local Government Areas (LGAs) have now been determined by the Chief Health Officer to be in the “moderate” community transmission risk category: o o

o o o • All other LGAs currently remain in the ‘low’ risk category. • Queensland Health facilities are required to comply with implementation of the Pandemic Response Guidance – Personal Protective Equipment in Healthcare Delivery. • Under the guidance, facilities located within these LGAs must apply a moderate risk PPE escalation (see Table 1, page 3). • Moderate risk PPE escalation will also apply to Residential Aged Care facilities and Disability residential care facilities and Prison Health Services. • In addition to these specific settings, personnel who work in facilities in the affected areas who also work in other facilities outside the escalated LGAs should follow the requirement for escalated PPE. • For health facilities external to Queensland Health, a decision on whether to follow the PPE protocols in the Guidance for health services will rest with the responsible Chief Executive or equivalent for that entity. • PPE guidance is additional to and does not replace the CHO directives that have been formally issued, for which compliance is mandatory.

Best wishes, Carl

A/Prof Carl de Wet MBChB DRCOG FRACGP FRCGP MMed PhD Clinical Lead | Primary Health Network | Gold Coast Clinical Lead | Healthcare Improvement Unit | Queensland Health Primary Care Clinical Lead | SHECC | Queensland Health

Anna Wesselman Project Officer Phone: 07 332 89167 Address: Level 2, 15 Butterfield Street, Herston, Queensland, 4006 Email: [email protected]

Clinical Excellence Queensland Healthcare Improvement Unit

www.clinicalexcellence.qld.gov.au

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