And congratulations to Victorians for hitting 28 consecutive days with no new COVID-19 cases!
Welcome to The Medical Republic’s COVID Catch-Up.
It’s the day’s COVID-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.
27 November
- No healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 from elective surgery procedures during second wave in Vic.
- Latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia.
- No healthcare workers were infected with SARS-CoV-2 while caring for elective surgical patients during Melbourne’s second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study has found.
Writing in the ANZ Journal of Surgery, Australian researchers report a study of 4,965 adults and children who underwent elective surgery or other interventional procedures between mid-July and the end of August, during which time all surgical patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 before surgery.
Overall, eight patients tested positive either before or shortly after surgery, four of whom were asymptomatic. Four patients tested negative before surgery but developed symptoms after surgery and were tested post-operatively.
However the study found no infections in any of the healthcare workers attending the surgery or caring for the surgical patients in the two weeks after being involved in their care.
“With existing current hospital capacity and decreasing case numbers, a staged recommencement of elective surgery should be considered,” they wrote. - Congratulations to Victorians for hitting 28 consecutive days with no new COVID-19 cases!
South Australia’s Parafield cluster has grown by one, but Western Australia’s seven new COVID-19 cases and Northern Territory’s five new cases are all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Here are the latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia to 9pm Thursday:
National – 27,867 with 907 deaths
ACT – 115 (0)
NSW – 4552 (0)
NT – 52 (5)
QLD – 1197 (0)
SA – 559 (1)
TAS – 230 (0)
VIC – 20,345 (0)
WA – 817 (7)
