There have been two new cases of COVID-19 confirmed overnight.
One is another health care worker at the Ipswich Hospital.
There are now five staff in the cluster from Ipswich Hospital.
Queensland Health Director-General Dr John Wakefield said it hasn’t spread to other parts of the hospital.
“They have all arisen from working in that COVID area or being a defined close contact of the nurses that were initially identified, so the link is direct,” Dr Wakefield said.
“West Moreton Health have done an excellent job with the support of Children’s Health Queensland and other large health services.
“At this stage the emergency department staff that were previously under quarantine have tested negative and are now back at work.
“West Moreton have initiated to the next stage of their internal plans and the common sense approach to that is to shift staff from the elective surgery area, who know Ipswich Hospital, to support the acute areas which is the emergency department and acute medical admissions so all of those services are proceeding normally.
“As a consequence the elective surgery has had to be reduced for the next few days.”
Dr Wakefield said the focus is on the patients who have been effect by a cancelled surgery.
“We have initiated a private hospital relationship to support patients who have had to have their surgery cancelled,” Dr Wakefield said.
“In addition to that I’ve mobilised other large health services around Brisbane to be able to provide support into West Moreton and also to be ready should there be further cases and the need to quarantine more cases, so we can maintain service for the people of West Moreton.
“It’s not fair for the patients of West Moreton to suffer less access to services while our other services are going full pelt on elective surgery.”
The other positive case overnight is a woman in her 20s who is a household contact of a known case.
Dr Wakefield also reminded people to stay at home if they are unwell in any way, get tested and don’t return to work or community life until the testing has been finalised.
There are currently 25 active cases in the state.
222 Ipswich Hospital staff in quarantine
On Sunday two cases were confirmed in the West Moreton region.
One of the cases was an Ipswich Hospital staff member who had contact with a positive patient and the other was connected to a Staines Memorial College case.
A spokesperson for West Moreton Health said they were taking every possible measure to keep patients and staff safe and for that reason 222 Ipswich Hospital staff are in quarantine.
“Ipswich Hospital and all our community services are continuing to provide safe care,” the spokesperson said.
“To take the pressure off our services, non-urgent Category 2 and 3 elective surgeries are being temporarily suspended, and appointments for these surgeries will be provided at other Hospital and Health services or at private providers.
“If you have a scheduled elective surgery, you will be contacted by our team.
“Please remember if you have any symptoms whatsoever, have a test at a COVID clinic and do not attend any scheduled appointment.
“If you require urgent care we are open and there is no reason to delay seeking urgent medical attention.”
Ambulance officers to assist with COVID testing
The Queensland Ambulance Service will be training up to 50 staff to assist and support Queensland Health and Local Health Services with COVID-19 testing.
These staff will be embedded into a team of 12 and can be rapidly deployed to areas as demand is required.
The staff will assist with around 200 tests per day.
“Swift testing is imperative to contain outbreaks during a pandemic,” a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said.
Economy fighting COVID-19
Queensland’s COVID-19 Fiscal and Economic Review was delivered today charting a course to recover from the impacts of COVID-19.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the forecast for the state’s economic rebound is to be almost twice as strong as the Australian average and there reason for optimism.
Unemployment is forecast to peak at 9% in the December quarter 2020, improving to 8% by June quarter 2021, with jobs growth partially offset by people re-entering the labour force as opportunities improve.
General Government Sector borrowings are estimated to be $60.903 billion in 2020-21, $18.165 billion more by 30 June 2021 than projected in the 2019-20 Mid Year Fiscal and Economic Review.
This is predominantly due to the impact of the COVID-19 support and recovery efforts, as well as cash flow revisions to GST, royalties and taxes of $6.7 billion.
Recent Ipswich Contact Tracing
The Queensland Health contact tracing alerts were recently updated to include:
Booval
29 August: Johnny Furniture 9.30am to 10am
West Ipswich
29 August: Spotlight 10am to 10.20am
Fantastic Furniture 11am to 11.10am
Springfield
29 August: Dosa Hut 11.55am to noon
Indian Spice Shop noon to 12.05pm
Yamanto
30 August: Woolworths noon to 12.20pm
Dominos 11.45am to 12.30pm
31 August: Woolworths 11am to 11.15am
Country Market 11.20am to 11.40am
Priceline 11.40am to 11.45am
Additional information
Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, fatigue or loss of taste or smell.
Fever clinics and testing locations: www.westmoreton.health.qld.gov.au/coronavirus
For the latest contact tracing locations click here.
For information about COVID-19 in other languages, click here.
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