27 June 2021

Dear colleagues,

Overnight and this morning, there have been more concerning developments with new COVID-19 cases in Queensland and other parts of Australia.

There is now sufficient concern in relation to two key clusters in South East Queensland that it has been determined that Metro North Health will move to a Tier One response in our pandemic response plan. This will take effect as of 8am tomorrow (Monday) morning, with several changes being introduced progressively from this afternoon onwards.

This move is proportionate to the current situation and ensures we are postured to protect staff and patients at this time of limited community transmission whilst minimising disruption to operational delivery of services.

Masks and PPE 

As determined by Queensland Health, our services are required to escalate use of PPE in accordance with the “moderate” risk category, effective immediately. This means that all staff are required, at a minimum, to wear a flat surgical mask when at work. The exception is when physical distancing can be maintained, e.g. if outdoors taking a break alone, or alone in an office.

Wearing of PPE when attending to clinical care of non-COVID-19 cases will require both a surgical mask and protective eyewear.  PPE for care of COVID-19 cases, quarantining persons, and ‘high risk’ suspected COVID-19 cases requires P2/N95 mask, protective eyewear, gown and gloves.

Whilst we have done this before, I encourage everyone to review the correct procedure for wearing and changing surgical masks.

Visitors and patients attending the hospital (including those attending vaccination clinics) will also be required to wear a mask. These masks can be surgical masks that we will provide or their own masks of a suitable quality (e.g. triple layer cloth masks).

Concierge service

From 8am tomorrow morning (if not sooner), concierge services will be in place at the entrances to our hospitals. The purpose of the concierge is to assist patients and visitors to comply with mask-wearing and signing into the Check-in Qld app.

Visitor Restrictions 

There are no changes to visitor restrictions for our hospitals and aged care facilities. This means that visitors can still attend our hospitals unless they are otherwise required to isolate, quarantine, or have symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Volunteers and students can still attend our hospitals and facilities. The change is that visitors, volunteers, and students will be required to wear a mask.

Contact tracing and sites 

The efforts of our public health and contact tracing teams have been extraordinary today.  There have been a significant number of new exposure sites and venues identified.

It is expected that the number of sites and venues will continue to grow and change in the coming hours and days. Please check this list regularly. Instructions on what to do if you are a close contact, a casual contact, or a casual low-risk contact, are also on this website.

Fever Clinics 

Our fever clinics have responded to an increase in presentations – with over 650 tests already attended to today. As we’ve seen during COVID clusters before, there’s likely to be a surge in demand for testing in the days ahead.  We will continue to work closely with our fever clinic teams and stand ready to increase clinic hours and resources as needed.

These sudden response changes are all familiar to us, and we are well-practiced in making them work. They’re also proportionate to the current increased COVID threat in our community. Please pay particular attention to physical distancing, handwashing, using the Check-in Qld app, and getting vaccinated as soon as you can.

Kind regards,

Dr Liz Rushbrook
Metro North Incident Controller

Metro North HHS – overview of cases*

*As at 27/06/2021 at 1000

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

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