With the current levels of transmission in the community decreasing, and improvements in the number of hospitalisations and staff furloughing, NSW Health has advised that public hospitals and services have moved to Yellow Alert Level in line with the COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Manual (see pages 87 to 91).
With the move to the risk level of Yellow, mask-wearing is now focused on clinical settings and public spaces as follows:
- staff will be required to wear a mask in all publicly accessible spaces and in clinical areas
- staff who work in non-clinical areas (areas where patients and visitors do not routinely have access to) will no longer be required to routinely wear masks in those work settings
- visitors will be required to wear a surgical mask at all times while in the facility
In general practice, the RACGP strongly encourages practices to continue mask use for the practice team, patients and visitors, and practices can make it a condition of entry to the practice to wear a mask. Download the Patient Alert Posters
With mandatory isolation requirements for COVID-19 ending last Friday (14 October), it is important GPs continue to advise COVID-positive patients to stay home and take steps to protect others.
People who test positive for COVID-19 may be infectious for up to 10 days. They are most infectious in the two days before symptoms start and while they have acute symptoms (such as a runny nose, sore throat, fever, cough).
To reduce the risk to others, NSW Health recommends people who test COVID-positive:
- Stay home until their acute symptoms have gone
- Don’t visit people at high risk of severe illness, anyone in hospital or an aged or disability care facility for at least seven days
- Wear a mask when indoors and on public transport, if they must leave their home.
- Avoid large gatherings and indoor crowded places, especially where they will be in contact with groups of people they don’t live with
- Talk to their employer about when you should return to the workplace
- Tell people they live with, or spend a lot of time with, they have COVID-19
- Register their positive rapid antigen test result with Service NSW (online or by calling 13 77 88)