Dear colleagues,

Queensland has recorded zero cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, with three recovered cases bringing our State’s total of active cases to 28. In the last five days Queensland has only recorded four new cases, all who have been in hotel quarantine. It is more important now than ever to keep up the great work to avoid any further community transmissions!

As mentioned earlier in the week, we are reviewing our Tier 2 minus regularly and the only relaxation of restrictions at this stage is that made earlier in the week around universal mask wearing. If you are still unsure if this applies to you, please speak to your line manager.

In today’s vidcast Jackie and I were joined by RBWH Director of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Krispin Hajkowicz. Krispin shared with us some great lessons learnt from the Victorian COVID-19 response. I’ve outlined five key learning points from today’s vidcast to keep our facilities, staff and patients safe in a potential outbreak:

 Tea room hospital transmission 

Some of the healthcare outbreaks in Victoria resulted from staff keeping their masks off for extended periods of time after eating in tea rooms to chat and socialise with other workers. Infections were also linked to staff using multiple staff rooms throughout facilities. So, the tip is to put masks back on immediately after eating, if you are required to wear one, and utilise one tearoom where possible. Even better was the suggestion of trying to take a break outdoors.

 Staff coming to work with mild symptoms  

Several outbreaks came from staff continuing to come to work when experiencing extremely mild symptoms. One staff member in Victoria who attend work with mild COVID-19 symptoms led to an estimated outbreak of over 70 people. We continue to urge staff to stay at home and get tested no matter how mild their symptoms may be.

Mobile staff were more susceptible to COVID infected  

Mobile healthcare workers were more likely to acquire and transmit COVID-19 as they moved between facilities. It was also noted that 90% of healthcare workers with COVID-19 were nurses, doctors and patient support officers. Not surprising that these staff frequently work with long periods of contact with patients.

Aerosol Generating Behaviour (AGB) became a new category of risk  

Aerosol Generating Behaviour from patients suffering with severe respiratory distress, dementia or other cognitive impairments arose as a new category of COVID-19 risk in the Victorian outbreak. Metro North will be looking into developing a COVID-19 plan around AGBs to ensure we have a procedure in place to minimise staff risk in case of an outbreak within our facilities. It’s a vexing problem so if you have any ideas on this please email me directly please.

Emotional and mental wellbeing of staff  

It is understandable that healthcare workers in Victoria have been suffering from fatigue, frustration, and decreased morale. Some services in Victoria supported staff with packages of water and snacks, some staff in direct contact with COVID-19 patients were offered hotel accommodation to lower the anxiety of bringing the virus back into their homes. At Metro North your wellbeing is our priority and in the case of a large outbreak we will explore avenues to help reduce fatigue and anxiety for our staff. Advice from those in the thick of it is to relax, recharge and take a break now while our transmission is low.

If you missed the vidcast today, my suggestion is to watch it here, much better than my few dot points above!  Krispin covers the core learnings from Victoria for about the first 20 minutes and then answers staff questions.

Tomorrow Michelle Stute, will be joining our team and I have no doubt will do a great job in her first week as Incident Controller.

Kind regards,
Mark Butterworth
Metro North Incident Commander

Current MN Response Tier Activated – Tier Two minus

Metro North HHS – Overview of Cases*

*With effect 16 September 2020, 1000

**Metro North has three recorded deaths (one person a return traveller into NSW, who passed away in NSW)

*** These numbers reflect the cases being managed by Metro North.