{"id":5232,"date":"2021-07-05T11:59:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T01:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/extranet\/?p=5232"},"modified":"2021-07-15T16:26:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T06:26:08","slug":"3-july-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/extranet\/covid-ic\/3-july-2021","title":{"rendered":"03 July 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Metro<\/span><\/div>
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03 July 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good\u00a0afternoon\u00a0colleagues,<\/p>\n

Most of you would have heard that the lockdown\u202fwill be removed from the\u202fBrisbane City Council and Moreton Bay Local Government Areas (LGA)\u202ftoday, July 3 at 18.00.<\/p>\n

While the lockdown has been\u202flifted this evening,\u202fMetro North Health remains at a Tier One\u202fresponse as detailed in our pandemic response plan.\u202f\u00a0This is because we are managing\u00a0a number of\u00a0outbreak responses within our local community, including response in one of our major hospitals\u00a0and ongoing major contact tracing efforts.\u00a0We can\u2019t be complacent given the high risk that the current COVID-19\u202fdelta<\/em>\u202fvariant\u202f(and other variants of concern)\u00a0poses\u202fand\u202fthe\u00a0number\u00a0across our community.<\/p>\n

The next few days and weeks will remain\u00a0challenging\u202fand we will continue to ask staff to remain vigilant and\u202fto ensure effective infection control procedures are in place to reduce the\u202frisks.<\/p>\n

Continue to use\u202fPPE\u202fand wear masks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the lockdown finishes at 6.00 pm,\u00a0there\u00a0remains gathering restrictions and mask wearing when outside our home\/car in place\u00a0for at least the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

In addition\u00a0to the requirement for all of us to wear face masks,\u00a0our Local Government Area\u2019s (LGA)\u00a0remain declared \u2018medium\u2019 risk for PPE escalation. This means that\u00a0all staff who are\u202fproviding routine clinical care\u202fin any setting\u202fwhere physical distancing cannot be maintained (e.g.\u202foutpatient appointment, ward rounds, handover meetings, 1:1\u00a0cares, care in the home)\u00a0must wear\u00a0a\u202fsurgical mask<\/strong>\u202fand<\/u>\u202fprotective eyewear<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Care in higher risk settings\u202fwill\u202frequire additional precautions as the circumstance dictates\u202f- including P2\/N95 respirator, gown and gloves.<\/p>\n

Continue to\u202fuse\u202fthe\u202fCheck\u202fIn\u202fQld app<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Staff, patients and visitors are now being asked to use the\u202fCheck\u202fIn\u202fQld\u202f<\/em>app<\/a>\u202fregularly.\u202f\u202fOur request of staff is to use the\u202fCheck\u202fIn\u202fQld<\/em>\u202fapp\u00a0so as to\u00a0simplify contact tracing should there be a transmission event in our hospital\u202for community setting.<\/p>\n

This means you need to use the\u202fCheck\u202fIn\u202fQld<\/em>\u202fapp to sign in when you start work and if you work in a designated COVID ward\u202for travelling between\u202fhealth\u202fsites or other\u202fprivate\u202fpremises.\u202f\u00a0Put simply, the more you check in, the better chance we\u00a0have to\u00a0identify if you\u00a0have been\u00a0to an exposure\u00a0site\/venue.<\/p>\n

Checking of exposure sites\u202fshould be\u202froutine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Updates continue to be posted by our great contract tracing team of exposure sites and I encourage to\u202fregularly checking\u202fand make this task an important part of your routine\u202ftasks by\u202faccessing the\u202fcontact tracing exposure sites<\/a>.<\/u><\/p>\n

A number of\u00a0new sites have been highlighted\u202fover the last few days\u202fincluding:<\/p>\n