The Covid mask rules of Victoria’s major hospitals revealed, as state battles worsening wave
The Victorian government’s “official silence” on the state’s worsening Covid wave is risking lives, a top social researcher has warned.
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The Victorian government’s “official silence” on the state’s worsening Covid wave is risking lives, a top social researcher has warned.
RMIT Adjunct Associate Professor Dr Stephen Alomes said now was the time for the Allan government to end its minimalist Covid public reporting approach, as “official silence costs lives”.
“It must end now,” he said. “We need a return to weekly reporting. The argument is simple. Information about infection cases and death tolls influences public behaviour regarding protection and vaccination, which may reduce the current wave. Therefore Victoria should return to weekly (public) reporting.”
The state government some time ago stopped publicly reporting Covid hospitalisation and deaths numbers, and does not allow Victorians to report their positive RAT results — meaning it does not have a true picture of the number of Covid cases in the state and how they are changing.
Covid death and hospitalisations numbers, however, can be found in its surveillance data, with deaths reported over a 28-day period.
In the most recent reporting period, deaths soared to a shocking 166, with nearly 60 per cent of the lives being claimed in a younger age bracket than previously.
Surveillance data — which the Herald Sun has been told is not designed for the public to scrutinise but for use by health authorities and scientists — showed a dramatic rise in deaths in the 66 to 80 age group, which have risen to nearly the peak level they were at in September 2021.
The data showed nearly 60 per cent of deaths are now in that age group, with others in the 80 plus age group — which has been the highest age bracket for deaths, for more than two years.
It comes as viral loads in the state’s wastewater — particularly in regional areas — continue to be high, indicating the current Covid wave is yet to peak and cases could continue rising over Christmas.
The Victorian Department of Health said a mix of Omicron recombinant XBB sublineages continue to dominate in Victoria, with HK. 3 the most dominant strain in the state currently.
But it added: “Of most concern is JN. 1, which is currently the fastest growing variant worldwide and has been detected in Victorian wastewater in increasing abundance in recent weeks.”
JN. 1 — a sublineage of the so-called ‘Pirola’ variant — has already started sweeping Britain, with health officials claiming it is “outperforming every other known strain”.
JN. 1 has one mutation in its spike protein, which dictates how easily it can infect our cells.
The new strain first appeared in Luxembourg in August, before spreading to the US, UK, France and other countries.
Researchers fear that JN. 1 will prove more infectious than previous variants because of its specific mutation. That, combined with people socialising more in the lead up to Christmas Day could result in a holiday period Covid crisis for hospitals.
The Victorian Department of Health has advised people to take precautions by masking-up.
On Thursday it tweeted: “Now is the time to be extra careful. Wearing a mask can help protect you and those around you from Covid. Wearing a high quality and well-fitted mask can stop or slow the spread of the virus.”
Federal government data to December shows just 34.3 per cent of residents in Victorian aged care homes had Covid boosters in the last six months and 83 facilities had Covid outbreaks.
Speaking at a recent Melboune Burnet Institute symposium, world-leading long Covid expert Ziyad Al-Aly urged the public not to “trivialise” Covid reinfections, which could lead to long Covid.
“If you dodged the bullet the first time, you may not be so lucky the second time,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Burnet Institute tweeted a warning that data showed “the risks of Covid are higher than seasonal influenza because of the extensive organ involvement’.
It said Dr Al-Aly had revealed debilitating long Covid “can affect nearly every organ system”.
Long Covid cases are increasing in Victoria.
Vic’s hospital mask rules revealed
Victorian hospitals are enforcing their own mask mandates as they battle to protect patients amid the state’s worsening Covid wave, with one major hospital providing “no exemptions”, banning visitors from eating and drinking at bedsides to prevent them removing their masks and warning visitors they will be told to leave if they don’t comply.
Barwon Health’s Geelong hospital instructs masks must be worn in all areas, at all times, including the birthing and maternity wards, and “strongly recommends” all visitors perform – and return a negative result – Rapid Antigen Test before visiting.
“Our patients are vulnerable and we want to reduce the risk of them contracting Covid-19 from visitors. Please follow the restrictions to keep everyone safe. All visitors MUST wear a mask at all times and it is not to be removed at the bedside. Visitors who do not abide by our visitor restrictions will be asked to leave,” the hospital warns.
At The Alfred, masks must be worn in all clinical areas and it’s strongly recommended they are also worn in non-clinical areas and public areas of the hospital, including lifts, corridors and retail areas.
Meanwhile, at The Royal Melbourne Hospital all visitors must wear a mask in clinical areas of the hospital, with those granted a mask exemption made to wear a face shield.
“We encourage you to wear a mask at all times during your visit,” the RMH states on its website. “In some high-risk areas, such as the Emergency Department, visitors and patients must wear N95 masks. Visitors must also wear N95 masks in Ward 5 West Day Medical, Ward 6 South West, Ward 7B. Other wards may also require visitors to wear N95 masks.”
At Monash Health, which operates numerous hospitals including the Monash Medical Centre, the Monash Children’s Hospital, Dandenong Hospital, Casey Hospital and Kingston Hospital, masks must be worn by all people over the age of eight and surgical masks worn in the emergency departments “as a minimum”. However, masks remain optional in public spaces and non-clinical areas such as shared corridors, retail, cafe and dining areas.
At St Vincent’s Hospital, all visitors are required to wear a surgical mask in clinical areas while at Northern Health’s Epping and Broadmeadows hospitals, as well as Bundoora and Craigieburn centres, “all hospital visitors are now required to wear a surgical mask (rather than N95), except for when visiting Covid-19 patients where full PPE, including an N95 mask, is required”.
“All visitors should remain at the patient’s bedside whenever possible and maintain physical distancing in the ward environment. Movement within the hospital should be limited,” the major health provider’s website states.
Visitors to the Royal Children’s Hospital must wear a mask at all times, except when in a patient’s room, while at the Peter Mac cancer centre they are required to wear a mask at all times unless they have a medical exemption.
Victorian hospitals can enforce mask wearing if they choose, to cope with surging Covid cases, after the state’s healthcare system was moved to a “stage two operational response” last month.
The four-level system, designed in 2022, outlines measures individual hospitals can consider such as mask mandates and increased telehealth to respond to growing demand.
Stage two measures are far less drastic than higher settings — such as a level four rating which can see the cancellation of elective surgery — and allows individual hospitals to make their own rules as opposed to following statewide mandates.
Many Victorian hospitals have had their own mask rules in place much further back than November, however, with some changing little since statewide Covid restrictions and mandates were removed.
Barwon Health’s website was last updated with mask rules in July this year, when Covid cases started to again rise.
The state’s current wave — with ever worsening hospitalisation and death rates over the last two months — has doctors and public health experts worried but the Victorian government has so far chosen not to follow Western Australia’s lead in introducing statewide mask mandates in all hospitals.
Can pets catch Covid?
Dogs and cats could be catching Covid from their owners.
Vets have reported pets being brought in to clinics unwell after a member of the household has had Covid, with the RSPCA warning owners to take precautions to prevent spreading the virus to their dogs and cats by washing their hands before preparing their animals’ food, and minimising contact with their pets while they are unwell.
It also recommends keeping dogs suspected of having Covid away from other dogs, so they don’t spread the virus.
“People who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 should eliminate or limit contact with animals as well as other people. Someone else should care for any animals, including companion animals,” the RSPCA advises.
“If a companion animal has been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, as a precaution they should be kept in the house and not allowed to interact with other people or animals.”
Most pets did not become severely unwell with the virus, but those that did should be taken to the vet, it said.
“If a companion animal has been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and is sick, their veterinarian should be contacted for advice; the animal should not be taken to the veterinary clinic unless the veterinarian has advised this and can take precautions,” the RSPCA notes on its website.
“The Australian Veterinary Association currently advises that Covid vaccination of animals in Australia is not required. The Australian government monitors this situation closely through monitoring emergence of new research and advice from global organisations, such as the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health), and will modify its advice if required.”
Meanwhile a major Victorian vet service – that operates clinics across Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula – said it had seen a number of dogs that it believed had presented with Covid, including one belonging to one of its own vets.
Because testing for Covid in dogs was not available in Australia, however, it could not be diagnosed definitively, senior vet and practice partner Dr Amanda Hulands-Nave said.
In most case, the dogs appeared to have become sick – sometimes with respiratory symptoms and abnormal blood tests – a number of weeks after there had been Covid infections in their household, she said.
Dr Amanda Hulands-Nave stressed she was speaking anecdotally, “as we can’t pin it down”.
“But there is a pattern there,” she said.
The dogs – the sickest of which developed pneumonia – usually improved within a month, Dr Hulands-Nave said.
The RSPCA said while there was evidence that many animal species (both domestic and wild) could get Covid from humans infected with the virus, the opposite did not appear to be true.
“Evidence indicates that animals do not play a significant role in infection of humans and that the human Covid-19 pandemic is sustained through human-human transmission,” it said.
“Although many individual domestic animals have now been shown to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 … It is unusual for infected animals to show signs of illness and these have generally been mild. crucially, there is no evidence that domestic animals are significantly involved in the spread of Covid-19 … there is evidence of infections of a number of domestic species … including cats, dogs, ferrets, hamsters, rabbits, and cattle.”
There had been some instances of serious Covid symptoms in cats and ferrets, it said
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