COVID scare at Royal Children’s as Victoria records 1571 new local COVID-19 cases, 13 deaths - The Age

Dozens of sick and vulnerable babies at the Royal Children’s Hospital have been plunged into isolation with their parents, after a father visited his sick baby on the neonatal intensive care ward while unknowingly infectious with COVID-19.

As a result, the hospital’s chief executive Bernadette McDonald said the hospital would introduce rapid antigen testing for all visitors by the end of this week.

“They will need to do that testing when they enter the hospital, before they get into any clinical wards they’ll have to have a negative test,” she said.

“This is not foolproof, it won’t guarantee that we won’t have another exposure, but it helps us minimise the risk of that happening.”

Ms McDonald said the COVID-positive father visited Butterfly ward, the hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward, on Thursday or Friday and notified the hospital after he tested positive on Monday evening.

She said there were 29 babies in the ward when the father visited. Two of the babies were declared tier 1 or close contacts, while the remainder are tier 2 or casual contacts.

All the families of the 29 babies had been contacted and were being tested for COVID-19, Ms McDonald said. So far, none of the babies have tested positive for coronavirus.

Ms McDonald said the hospital usually had about five patients at a time with COVID-19.

“We have negative pressure rooms that the children who are positive for COVID are cared for in, and we have enough negative pressure rooms to deal with the demand that we’ve got at this point in time,” she said.

Last week, child cancer patients and their families at the hospital were asked to isolate for 14 days after another unknowingly infected parent visited the oncology ward. No further cases have been linked to this exposure.

The decision to implement a trial of rapid antigen testing at the Royal Children’s Hospital, followed a trial of tests at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. It also comes after the state government’s announcement that it would buy more than 2 million rapid tests for Victoria’s health system.

The rapid antigen tests take less than 20 minutes to return a result. The testing regime will begin at the hospital this week.

Ms McDonald said there had been other COVID-19 exposures in the hospital during the state’s third wave of infections.

“We know that mums and dads need to see their children, and children need to see their mums and dads especially when they’re in hospital, but we do need to protect everyone given the rising numbers of COVID in the community,” she said.

Royal Children’s Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald.Credit:Getty Images

“It is a very challenging circumstance to find the balance between allowing mums and dads to come and see their children and spend time with their children … and trying to manage to keep everyone safe from COVID-19.”

Victoria recorded 1571 new local cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 13 deaths, the highest daily death toll in Victoria this year.

Health Minister Martin Foley said 705 people were in hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 146 were in intensive care and 92 on a ventilator. He said 87.1 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 60.9 per cent had received two doses.

There were also a record 79,200 COVID-19 tests processed on Tuesday, while 38,072 people received a coronavirus vaccine at a state-run clinic. Victoria now has 19861 active coronavirus cases.

Victorians to be vaccinated at gyms, clubs, cafes

Fancy an extra shot with your coffee? Victorians will now be able to get vaccinated at their local cafe, gym and shopping mall.

Mr Foley said a new local neighbourhood pop-up vaccine program would help to vaccinate dozens in people in two, three and four-hour “blitzes”.

“The first neighbourhood pop-up is opening today at a coffee shop in Melbourne’s outer north, with more locations to follow, particularly in our high-risk local government areas that are the subject of our greatest attention,” Mr Foley said.

“These neighbourhood pop-up models are designed to support Victorians to get access to vaccines, Pfizer in particular, in the most convenient, familiar and easy to deal with locations. And equally, in culturally safe and protective locations for those Victorians who might need that further reassurance as to the need to come forward and get vaccinated.”

Mr Foley said the program would be in partnership with the state government, local GPs, community health organisations, St John’s Ambulance, and a range of other providers.

People would not have to book in to get a vaccine at the new local hubs, he said. Pop-ups were also planned for several neighbourhood houses across different communities.

Hotels, RSL added to regional Victoria’s list of exposure sites

Health authorities identified a number of new COVID-19 exposure sites in regional Victoria late on Tuesday evening.

They were all tier-1 or close contact, and included the Wangaratta RSL and the nearby Pinsent Hotel and The Old ‘N’ Country Tavern.

A farm equipment supplier at Trafalgar in the West Gippsland region was declared tier 1 on Friday, October 8 between 8am and 4.30pm, while a shower block at the Wakiti Creek Resort at Kotupna was declared a tier 1 site over two days: Tuesday, October 5 and Wednesday, October 6.

The National Hotel Complex at Bendigo was declared a tier 1 site on Monday, October 4 between 6.56pm and 9.30pm, while Bomboras Torquay, on the Surf Coast, was also listed for Wednesday, October 6 between 11.50am and 12.50pm.

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2021-10-12 22:34:22Z
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