Page 3093 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 9 November 2021
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doses. This is because AIR population figures inflate the ACT population by about 20 per cent.
Nevertheless, we know that there are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our community who are eligible to be vaccinated and who have not yet come forward. ACT Health continues to partner with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services in the rollout of the ACT’s COVID-19 vaccination program and provides funding for three nurses to support vaccination administration. Aspen Medical, with support from the commonwealth, also ran two dedicated drop-in clinics on the south side and the north side in October for members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
On 1 November, the Chief Health Officer issued a public health direction that requires disability, community and in-home aged-care workers to be vaccinated with a first vaccine dose by 15 November, and a second vaccine dose by 13 December. This builds on previous public health directions that require workers in residential aged-care facilities, primary schools, early childhood education and care facilities, and hospitals, hospices and patient transport workers to be vaccinated. The introduction of targeted public health directions that require vaccination of workers in critical and high-risk sectors is designed to curb COVID-19 transmission and reduce the severity of adverse outcomes, including death.
Healthcare settings have a particularly high likelihood of providing care to people with COVID-19, resulting in higher rates of potential exposure to staff and patients. To date, ACT hospitals have demonstrated effective infection prevention and control measures, but the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in healthcare settings in other jurisdictions is well known. Due to this higher risk, the Chief Health Officer is actively considering whether to expand the scope of existing public health directions to include additional critical healthcare settings like primary care.
The outbreak in the ACT remains under control, with public health teams quickly responding to new cases and supporting these cases, as well as any close contacts. Following the conclusion of the lockdown, the Chief Health Officer and the COVID-19 response team are focused on ensuring that public health social measures are proportionate to the current level of risk in the community.
Over recent weeks, transmission has been linked to schools and early learning centres, construction sites and a small number of general workplaces. Following changes to the way close and casual contact exposure sites are assessed, there were only 31 exposure locations as of midday on 8 November, a significant decrease since lockdown.
As at 8 pm on 7 November, there have been a total of 1,742 cases linked to the current ACT outbreak. There are 136 active cases, with one COVID patient in intensive care, requiring ventilation. Sadly, there have been 14 deaths since the start of the pandemic. There are now 1,595 cases associated with this outbreak who have recovered. The ACT’s total case number over the whole pandemic is 1,866.
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