Dr Liz Rushbrook, Chief Medical Officer, Emergency Management and Business Continuity

We have received notification of a shift from AMBER to GREEN in the COVID-19 traffic light system in Queensland, due to decreasing community transmission and hospitalisations for COVID-19. This will be effective from 7am today, Wednesday 18 January 2023.

For us at Metro North Health, this means we no longer require staff or patients to wear a mask in low-risk areas of the hospital from today. Usual transmission based precautions will also apply. In high-risk COVID-19 areas, P2/N95 masks will still be required.  Masks will still be available for those who wish to continue wearing them.

Whilst masks are not required on public transport or indoors staff, should consider whether they choose to wear a mask in areas where you can’t physically distance.

It is important that we continue to model great behaviour in the workplace. Our continued practice of good hand hygiene and high compliance with transmission based precautions not only keeps you and your family safe, it protects our patients and community.

We should also ensure:

• Hand sanitisation stations are fully stocked and checked regularly.
• Masks are readily available for staff and visitors who choose to wear them.
• We are supporting safe visits at all times – we ask that people who have tested positive for COVID-19 avoid visiting hospitals, aged care or disability care for 7 days after they test (unless they are receiving care).  We can support visits to our hospital if absolutely necessary.
• We have adequate RAT supplies to support our staff and patients to test when required.
• We stay home if we are unwell and maintain good hand hygiene and social distancing where possible.

I would like to thank you all for your diligent and excellent work over the past almost three years of COVID-19.

Warm regards,
Dr Liz Rushbrook