Jul 31, 2020

NSW strengthens visitor and PPE guidance as COVID-19 risk escalates

Given the current risk of COVID-19 now in the community, NSW Health has extended requirements for face masks and visitation restrictions across new local government areas.

The state’s Chief Health Officer has added the local government areas of Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick and the eastern part of City of Sydney to the list of regions required to implement the following measures:

  • Any visitors to any residential aged care facility who have been in the following local government areas in the previous 14 days should be excluded from the facility: Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick, eastern part of City of Sydney, Parramatta, Fairfield, Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly.
  • All aged care staff who reside in the above local government areas or a NSW/VIC border community must wear a surgical mask while in the facility.
  • Staff and visitors who have visited any of the locations on the same date as a COVID-19 case (see updated list of venues and dates) should be excluded for a period of 14 days since their visit to the listed location.
  • All residential aged care staff who work in residential aged care facilities located within the above LGAs and in communities along the NSW/VIC border must wear a surgical mask while in the facility.
  • Residential aged care facilities in the above local government areas should not allow any visitors (visitors performing essential caring functions may be allowed but must wear a mask). In exceptional circumstances, seek advice from your local NSW Health public health unit on 1300 066 055.

The extension of these local government area restrictions will be in place until further notice.

Home Care Service providers who either live or work in any of these designated local government areas must also wear face masks while providing services.

Read the NSW Chief Health Officer’s letters to home care providers and residential providers.

This information was provided by the Department of Health.

Image: RyanJLane, iStock.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Omission of aged care staff from retention payment is “shameful”, CEO tells minister

  The CEO of a New South Wales retirement village has called on the federal health minister and a local MP to explain to key aged care workers – a laundry supervisor, a cleaner, a grounds manager, a caterer, a maintenance officer, and a receptionist – why they are not entitled to the Aged Care... Read More

On the road out of the coronavirus crisis, let us not lose our humanity

You don’t have to read very far into the Aged Care Royal Commission’s interim report to get a clear sense of why our nation has sadly failed in the care of older Australians. In the first and second paragraphs of the report’s foreword an issue that has fed our tolerance for mistreatment and abuse in... Read More

‘Hug curtains’ allow families to embrace elderly loved ones in lockdown

  In an aged care facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where visiting restrictions have been in place for months and are unlikely to be lifted any time soon, residents and their loved ones now have a new way to meet, that even allows them to embrace, providing families with important connection, and much needed reassurance.... Read More
Advertisement