The Queensland government has announced a 72 hour lockdown for aged care facilities due to the recent locally transmitted COVID-19 case. Effective immediately, all non-essential visits to residential aged care facilities in Greater Brisbane are restricted.
Greater Brisbane includes:
- City of Brisbane
- City of Ipswich
- Logan City
- Moreton Bay Region
- Redland City
Despite these restrictions, persons may enter a restricted residential aged care facility if they are:
- an employee, contractor or student of the facility
- providing goods or services necessary for the facility’s operation
- providing health, medical, personal care or pharmaceutical services to a resident
- administering a COVID-19 vaccine to a resident
- visiting an end of life resident
- required for emergency management, law enforcement or to comply with an order of any court or tribunal of Australia
- a prospective resident or a support person of a prospective resident
- maintaining continuity of care for a resident that can’t be delivered by non-contact means – with permission of the facility’s operator.
Any person (other than a resident) permitted to enter a restricted facility must not enter, or remain on, the premises without wearing a single use surgical face mask. A person does not have to wear a mask if it will create a risk to their health or safety.
Residents may only leave the facility to receive health care, attend a funeral or for an emergency or compassionate reason.
It is important to:
- Stay home if you are sick
- If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, get tested
- Stay 1.5 metres away from other people—think two big steps
- Wash your hands with soap and water, or hand sanitizer
- Leave the location if it is crowded.
Providers are advised to continue to monitor the Queensland Health Website for further details and updates. The Aged Care Direction (no. 25) are also available online.
Vaccine rollout
Please note that these restrictions will not affect the rollout of vaccines to impacted facilities and teams will comply with Queensland government public health orders including wearing the required PPE to protect residents and staff while administering vaccines.
PPE
Aged care providers are asked to ensure they have a sufficient supply of PPE, to use their own supply of PPE first and to request extra supply as and when needed. If you urgently need PPE and cannot source it, please submit an online application. The application will need to be completed for your request to be considered. The Commonwealth is prioritising requests for PPE from the National Medical Stockpile to aged care services that are most in need.
Further information and advice
Please visit the Australian Government Department of Health website for information and resources to assist in preparing and managing a COVID-19 outbreak including what to do in the first 24 hours of an outbreak in a residential aged care facility.