Dear colleagues,

Overnight, Queensland reported just one new positive case of COVID-19, however this case does not negatively impact Queensland’s community transmissions. This means QLD is now on day 30 of no community transmissions! The positive patient is a return traveller from Papua New Guinea and was symptomatic in hotel quarantine. This patient is being managed clinically by our wonderful Virtual Ward team in MNHHS.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Queensland borders
• Vaccine in today’s news
• Emotional Wellbeing

Queensland borders

There has not been an update to our border directive today as we expected there might have been. I will monitor this situation and update accordingly in tomorrow’s message.  Please continue to follow existing directives until further notice and thank you for being so vigilant in staying abreast of changes as they occur.

COVID-19 Vaccination in today’s news

If you looked up today’s news for COVID-19 it was overwhelmingly that Scott Morrison has signed an agreement to secure the rights to manufacture COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and currently in the final stages of trials. While this is extremely positive news, I caution everyone to remain hypervigilant as trials and manufacturing could still take some time AND while it is the most positive vaccine out there, it still isn’t a confirmed COVID-19 vaccination. The best preventative proven so far is hand and personal hygiene, physical distancing and staying home when sick. Follow our Metro North mantra while the world eagerly awaits a vaccination and know that we will be “front and centre” when one becomes available.

Emotional Wellbeing

This is a subject that has appeared in our Incident Controller messages extremely frequently because your emotional wellbeing is just as important to us as your physical wellbeing. Our Chief Wellbeing Officer and the Values in Action team have done incredible work around supporting our staff wellbeing during this pandemic and beyond. The Peer Responder: Psychological First Aid program will officially launch the first week of September. In the meantime, there are many RUOK’ers on the ground, psychology clinics at each facility and a multitude of resources on the wellbeing extranet page including contact numbers for Benestar. RUOK? Day is in the second week of September and will promote some exciting events for wellbeing at Metro North. Watch this space!

Happy hump day (Wednesday), and remember, what you do is so appreciated!

And in the words of Dolly Parton, “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain”.

Kind regards,
Alanna Geary
Metro North Incident Commander

Metro North HHS – Overview of Cases*

*With effect 19 August 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.