Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice for the health and disability sector

Attending the workplace

• Working arrangements
  Find out what health or aged care employers need to do to keep their staff and business safe during COVID-19.

Protection in the workplace

• Hygiene and cleaning
  To protect yourself and your patients, it is important to maintain good hygiene and a clean workplace. Follow the guidelines for personal hygiene, routine cleaning, disinfecting, terminal cleaning, and protective gear.

• Personal protective equipment (PPE) for the health workforce
  PPE includes surgical masks, P2/N95 respirators, gloves, goggles, glasses, face shields, gowns and aprons. Find out who in the health workforce should use PPE, how to use PPE, and how we are managing the PPE in our National Medical Stockpile.
• Mental health for the health workforce
  Health workers are facing unprecedented circumstances and pressure during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This can take a toll on mental health. Read about what you can do to look after your mental health and wellbeing during this challenging time.

Providing health care and supporting patients

• Providing health care face to face
  When providing health care face to face during the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers should take steps to keep themselves and their patients safe. Read about when to provide care face to face and how to protect yourself and your patients.
• Providing health care remotely
  New temporary MBS telehealth items are available until 31 March 2021. These will help reduce the risk of community transmission of COVID-19 and protect patients and health care providers. Find out how to provide health care and prescription medicines via telehealth.

A new guide is available to help general practitioners have discussions with patients around their risk related to COVID-19.

When a patient has concerns about their risk of severe COVID-19 illness, you can help them develop a COVID-19 action plan. This plan considers their wishes and priorities and helps them manage risk and maintain a lifestyle that has quality and meaning.  

Managing COVID-19 in disability care

• Managing COVID-19 in disability care
  Specialist resources and advice for disability support services and workers. Find out about when you must not go to work, getting tested, identifying symptoms in older people, and protecting yourself and the people you care for.

Remdesivir – information for clinicians

Remdesivir has provisional approval for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults and adolescents (aged 12 years and older, weighing at least 40kg) with pneumonia requiring supplemental oxygen. The decision to approve this medicine has been made based on limited data. More comprehensive evidence is required to be submitted.

Medical practitioners are invited to apply for a supply of remdesivir through the National Medical Stockpile. Gilead has donated a small supply to the Commonwealth government, which will be available for use in eligible patients. Eligible patients are generally adults who are hospitalised with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Read the eligibility criteria.

The use of remdesivir outside of clinical trials has been endorsed by the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.

An application form and more details about the supply from the National Medical Stockpile can be obtained by contacting Margaret.Noris [at] health.gov.au 

Resources and training

National guidelines

The Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) guides the Australian health sector response to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 National Guidelines for Public Health Units provides interim recommendations on:

• surveillance
• infection control
• laboratory testing
• contact management

The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) updates these guidelines regularly.

Key collection

This collection contains resources for health professionals on:

• providing health care
• personal protective equipment
• working arrangements
• aged care services
• testing
• training
• hygiene and cleaning

COVIDSafe app

Use our COVIDSafe app to quickly identify close contacts in case you, or someone you have been in contact with, are diagnosed with COVID-19.

Infection control training

COVID-19 infection control training is available for care workers across all health care settings.

This training is hosted on an external site, provided by our COVID-19 training partner Aspen Medical.

Register now

Dementia training and resources

For advice on how to best support people living with dementia during this difficult time, go to these resources:

• Restrictive Practices: Understanding and Managing Behaviours in a Time of Pandemic is a fact sheet on how to support people living with dementia.

• COVID-19: An Informative Resource Guide provides links to practical information on COVID-19 including tips for supporting people with dementia.
• Dementia Discovery offers free micro-courses giving introductory training about dementia including communication strategies in care settings.

Webinars

View our webinars on the COVID-19 response for the health and aged care sector.

Information for international health workers and medical students

The Home Affairs website contains information for international health workers and medical students, including about:

• international students and working hours
• entering Australia
• Working Holiday Maker visas
• applying to return to Australia

Staying informed

To stay up to date:

• browse our COVID-19 news and media
• check our news and announcements for the aged care sector

You can also subscribe to our health professional mailing lists:

• Subscribe to aged care sector announcements and newsletters
• Subscribe to COVID-19 weekly updates for GPs
• Subscribe to COVID-19 mental health updates for health professionals

You can also join our WhatsApp channel or use our Coronavirus Australia app.