Sydney doctors mask up for mini-lockdown

4 minute read

COVID-19

By

Holly Payne

The contagious Delta variant has plunged four areas of the major city into a seven-day staycation.

Anyone who lives or works in four local government areas of central Sydney is subject to stay-at-home orders until next Friday, as authorities attempt to contain the latest covid-19 outbreak.

The LGAs are City of Sydney, Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick, as NSW Health records a growing number of Delta-variant covid cases.

Anyone who lives in one of those areas, or has worked there in the past 14 days, must stay home unless they absolutely have to go out to work or go to school; they may also exercise outside in groups of 10 or fewer, provide care to a relative or buy essential goods.

The orders begin midnight tonight (Friday 25 July) and are set to end midnight next Friday (2 July).

Related
Political

GPs should now have access to fit-testing
COVID-19

GPs’ PPE must match aerosol reality

Although the official figures for the day show just 11 new cases, an additional 17 were reported overnight, to be included in tomorrow’s numbers – this brings the total number of cases in the outbreak to 65.

Speaking at a press conference, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant warned that there were likely many more cases to come, with just one venue – a hairdressers in Double Bay – generating more than 900 close contacts.

AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid has called for a wider lockdown, and said the current measures “don’t go far enough to beat Delta”.

This lockdown – although NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was careful not to use that term – comes two weeks to the day after the Infection Control Expert Group (ICEG) made landmark changes to advice on PPE for frontline health workers.

RACGP President Dr Karen Price told The Medical Republic that it would be up to GPs themselves to assess the level of risk they were facing.

“Just like in any other place in Australia, GPs in Sydney will make decisions based on the guidance set out in the relevant federal Department of Health documentation,” she said.

“In short, if there is a likely high risk of COVID-19 transmission the use of P2/N95 respirators, rather than surgical masks, is recommended.”

Under the fresh advice, all healthcare workers providing “direct patient care or working within the patient/client/resident zone for individuals with suspected or confirmed covid” should have access to a fit-tested respirator and eye protection.

ICEG advises to use these precautions – as opposed to a surgical mask – based on a risk assessment, with some of the key considerations including whether there is current community transmission of the virus and whether the patient is a resident of a “geographically localised area with elevated prevalence” of covid.

Under this guidance, it appears that GPs working in Sydney will have ample justification to don an n95 respirator and goggles as this outbreak unfolds.

For instances where fit testing has not yet been carried out, but a P2/N95 respirator is recommended for use, the ICEG advice is that a “fit-checked P2/N95 respirator” is preferred over a surgical mask.

This will be the first time major restrictions have been imposed on the region since late 2020, when a cluster of cases in the Northern Beaches saw stay-at-home orders imposed in the days leading up to Christmas.

Nonetheless, Sydneysiders have done what they do best, and taken to social media to support, rally and complain.

Here are some of – in this reporter’s humble opinion – the most entertaining takes on the lockdown so far.

End of content

No more pages to load

Log In Register ×