What happens after you’re Covid-positive

Mackay team says there’s a select criteria when you’re positive and a critical element is needed from you

Environmental Health Officer Anne Marie Farrelly, Public Health Nurse Terrianne Messina, Environmental Health Officer Renae Shepherd and Public Health Nurse Natalie Tibbles from the Public Health Unit at the Mackay Base Hospital. Picture: Tony Martin

A POSITIVE case is assessed in terms of their physical health to determine whether they require hospital ­admission or can be treated in a virtual ward.

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All but one positive case in the Mackay Hospital Health Service - which includes Proserpine and Bowen - has experienced mild symptoms, Public Health Unit director Brigid Fenech said, adding they were "fairly mild cases".

"Part of the process is, especially if they're mild cases, they may not be admitted to the traditional hospital, they may be admitted to a virtual ward and monitored by health professionals from within the hospital and the PHU."

Virtual wards, however, require trust in the patient.

The Public Health Unit, along with the infection control doctor, apply a multi-layered assessment tool to determine if the virtual ward is a suitable treatment option.

"If (the patient) is a flight risk, they might not be suitable for the virtual ward," Ms Fenech said.

"The flip side of that is they potentially could go into a virtual ward, but we could also get Queensland Police involved as well, so it's a multi-agency approach when we get to that level.

"If they are suitable for the virtual ward, they are an otherwise fit and healthy person and their symptoms are fairly mild, they have a clinical call every day, they have a visit from the PHU member (by teleconference) … from a compliance point of view to make sure they are upholding their side and sitting inside the house waiting for symptoms to subside so they can be discharged into the community."

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