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A recent message sent to staff at The Royal Melbourne Hospital said that in "response to the changing circumstances in the communities we care for" the hospital was changing its advice on masks.
"We now advise that within all clinical areas and non-clinical areas where physical distancing cannot be maintained we believe it is reasonable for all staff to wear a surgical mask to increase their protection against COVID-19," the advice said.
Staff were also told to change into a new mask at least once every four hours, maintain physical distancing of 1.5 metres if possible, not come to work if sick and to undergo a COVID-19 test if they had symptoms.
There has been a spate of coronavirus infections in nurses or other hospital staff in Melbourne, including an outbreak at the emergency department at Northern Hospital, which neighbours some locked-down postcodes.
As of Monday, seven staff at the emergency department had been affected.
Victorian AMA president Julian Rait said many more people working in the emergency department had been forced into isolation, putting a considerable strain on the capacity of the hospital to deal with emergency patients.
"A large part of the Northern Hospital emergency staff have been isolated and therefore are unable to be in the workplace," Associate Professor Rait said.
"We would be obviously anxious to know whether [the infections] were acquired in the workplace or elsewhere," he said, adding it appeared to date that most hospital staff had contracted their infections outside work.
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"That is reassuring, because that would suggest that appropriate PPE [protective equipment] was being used."
Associate Professor Rait said the AMA supported the new requirement for front-line hospital staff to wear masks in communities where there was coronavirus circulating.
He said the AMA and Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton would also be discussing within the next 24 hours whether patients attending hospitals from hotspot areas should be made to wear masks.
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Aisha Dow reports on health for The Age and is a former city reporter.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL2NoYW5naW5nLWNpcmN1bXN0YW5jZXMtbWVsYm91cm5lLWhvc3BpdGFsLXdvcmtlcnMtdG9sZC10by1kb24tbWFza3MtMjAyMDA3MDctcDU1OXF3Lmh0bWzSAYQBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlYWdlLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9jaGFuZ2luZy1jaXJjdW1zdGFuY2VzLW1lbGJvdXJuZS1ob3NwaXRhbC13b3JrZXJzLXRvbGQtdG8tZG9uLW1hc2tzLTIwMjAwNzA3LXA1NTlxdy5odG1s?oc=5
2020-07-07 03:35:51Z
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