Bundaberg Oral Health Service shuts for 14 days after positive COVID-19 test

The Bundaberg Oral Health Service will close for two weeks, with staff in home quarantine, after a dental assistant tested positive for coronavirus.

THE Bundaberg Oral Health Service will be shut down for 14 days and dozens of its staff have gone into home quarantine after a dental assistant tested positive for coronavirus.

The 48-year-old woman, who had returned to Bundaberg from Indonesia, was among 11 new cases diagnosed in Queensland on Saturday – the biggest increase in the state’s COVID-19 tally in a single day.

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She was the only case listed outside of Brisbane, West Moreton and the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

The new cases, all said to be stable, take the number of Queensland COVID-19 patients so far to 46.

Queensland Health said all had either travelled overseas or been exposed to a confirmed case.

In a message to colleagues, obtained by The Courier-Mail, Wide Bay Health’s acting executive director of acute hospital and community services James Thomas said the Bundaberg Oral Health Service had been closed “as a precaution”.

“The safety of staff and patients is our highest priority and this decision has been made on the advice of our public health experts on a local and state level,” he said.

“We are directly contacting people who are known to have been in close contact with the woman while she might have been infectious.”

The Courier-Mail understands the woman had contact with patients, but it is unclear whether any have been asked to go into home quarantine as gloves and masks are always used during dental treatments.

In a statement on Saturday night posted on its website, the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service said patients of its Bundaberg dental health clinic would be contacted individually to reschedule appointments.

The statement said the clinic would reopen on March 30.

“This is due primarily to impact on available staffing resources while close contacts self-quarantine,” it said.

As the number of COVID-19 patients continues to soar, the state’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has made an unusual plea to Queenslanders to put aside politeness and prioritise health and safety.

“Stop shaking hands for a while, is our advice,” Dr Young said.

“It might seem rude but avoiding unnecessary contact is a smart way of stopping the spread of the virus.”

Based on overseas modelling, she has predicted up to 1.25 million Queenslanders will be infected with COVID-19 over six months, as many as 250,000 will need hospital care and 12,500 people could die.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young and Health Minister Steven Miles this week. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Although she said most people infected with the virus would only develop “very, very mild symptoms”, she called on all Queenslanders to play their part to help protect the state’s elderly by staying home if they are sick.

With Queensland performing more than 1000 tests for COVID-19 daily, Health Minister Steven Miles has announced two drive-through testing clinics will be trialled in Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast, and Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

The drive-through fever clinics are also being trialled in South Australia and experts say they have proved effective in South Korea.

Mr Miles said they were designed to alleviate the workload of general practitioners and hospital emergency departments during an anticipated COVID-19 epidemic in Queensland.

The drive-through facilities will be based at the Caloundra Health Service’s Minor Injury and Illness Clinic and Toowoomba’s Baillie Henderson Hospital.

“People will be asked to remain in their vehicle, and then clinical staff wearing personal protective equipment will test temperature, oxygen saturation, pulse and respiration through the car window,” Mr Miles said.

“If people meet the testing criteria, swabs will then be taken and the swabs sent for testing for COVID-19.

“These two drive-through clinics will operate as a trial to test their effectiveness and determine if they would work at other hospital and health service locations to cater for increased demand.”

Infectious diseases expert Nigel McMillan, of Griffith University, described the drive-through clinics as “a brilliant idea”.

“The Koreans started this. It makes a whole lot of sense both for the safety of medical workers and throughput,” Professor McMillan said.

“You reduce a whole lot of exposure levels of everyone.”

The Caloundra drive-through, which launched yesterday, will be open between 8am to 8pm seven days a week.

Toowoomba’s drive-through will open in the carpark at the northern side of Toowoomba’s Baillie Henderson Hospital tomorrow. It will be operational between 10am and 6pm seven days a week.

As Queensland begins to ramp up its response to COVID-19, aged care centres have also begun to put measures in place to protect their residents, expected to be particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some aged care centres are banning visits from family members outside of Monday to Friday business hours. They have also put measures in place requiring visitors to have their temperature taken and to answer questions before being allowed to enter the facility.

Worldwide, more than 145,000 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and deaths have surpassed 5400.

For more information: 13 HEALTH.