“At the bare minimum,any healthcare worker treating COVID-positive patients must have appropriate,fit-tested personal,protective equipment and their COVID vaccination,” he said.
Dr Perry also called on Queensland Health to reveal the findings of an investigation into how a Brisbane doctor contracted COVID-19 from a patient at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
AMAQ president Dr Chris Perry questioned the Queensland government’s COVID immunisation program for doctors and nurses.Credit:Lydia Lynch
The doctor was infected bya man who arrived from Qatar on March 5 and the nurse was believed to be infected on March 23by a traveller from India.
Dr Young on Tuesday morning outlined the emerging dual COVID-19 scenario.
She said genome testing revealed both health workers had been infected by separate returned travellers being treated at the hospital.
Dr Young said all local cases detected since the start of the latest outbreak had been linked back to the two clusters and all were the B117 variant,known as the UK strain.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said 20,000 additional vaccinations had been completed in the past week.
“We’ll of course have a look at what’s happened at the PA Hospital,we want to understand how these transmissions occur.”
The state governmentplanned to have administered the first vaccine dose to all 37,000 frontline staffby April 4.
Queensland vice-president of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation,Hau Tan,said fit-testing of the P2 masks was essential to protect frontline doctors.
“These types of masks afford a better feel and better protection against COVID,” Dr Tan said.
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“Having a range of P2/N95 masks and having a range of different face shapes amongst our healthcare workers,we need to make sure that a particular mask that a doctor or nurse uses fits them appropriately,” he said.
“And according to our survey,70 per cent say they have not been fit-tested for these P2/N95 masks.”
Dr Tan said the issue was raised with Queensland Health “several times”.
- with Lydia Lynch