“In that way, we knew she was in a place of safety, if you like, in terms of her quarantine, and she was obviously subsequently found to be positive after that test,” he said.
Dr Wakefield said the hospital had delayed some elective surgeries, however it was maintaining all its emergency department functions and was not diverting emergency patients or people requiring acute care.
Instead, Dr Wakefield said staff from neighbouring hospital and health services, including Metro North and Metro South, had been asked to contribute staff to help fill the gap.
“[We’ve done that] to provide support for West Moreton [Hospital and Health Service] but also to be ready should there be more cases and the need to quarantine more staff, that we can do that in an organised way and maintain services,” he said.
“We’ve [also] initiated a private hospital relationship which we have across the state to be able to support those patients who have had their surgery cancelled.”
Dr Wakefield said access to a private hospital bed for elective surgery patients was being done on a “case-by-case basis” but stressed it would “not be right” for patients in West Moreton HHS not to have the same access to elective surgery as patients in other areas.
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A number of Ipswich hospital workers who had previously been required to quarantine after an earlier case have completed 14 days of isolation and are able to come back and help fill the shortfall.
Five cases are associated with the Ipswich hospital cluster, with a total of 27 active cases across Queensland out of a cumulative total of 1133.
More than 6000 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, including more than 500 on Russell Island in Moreton Bay, which recorded a positive case at the weekend.
While Queensland Health has not updated its contact tracing list since Saturday, Orion Springfield Central took to Facebook to alert its customers about stores visited on Wednesday by a person who later tested positive.
The major shopping centre, west of Brisbane, said health authorities had contacted centre management on Sunday to confirm the person had visited the Big W, Stacks Discount and City Beach stores between 11am and 1pm.
They also visited the Peter McMahon Swim Factory between 4pm and 4.30pm that day.
Anyone who visited the locations is urged to monitor their health, get tested if they develop any symptoms and self-isolate.
City Beach was closed on Sunday for deep cleaning though based on health advice there was deemed to be no concerns with the other sites.
Stuart Layt covers health, science and technology for the Brisbane Times. He was formerly the Queensland political reporter for AAP.
Matt Dennien is a reporter with Brisbane Times.
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