Northern NSW Health District boss Wayne Jones details Covid measures

The region’s health boss says spending the past five months in Sydney has given him a clear idea of how the next stage of the pandemic will affect Northern NSW.

Northern NSW Local Health District chief executive Wayne Jones is back after five months in Sydney supporting the statewide response to the Delta outbreak.

More people will catch Covid but fewer of them will need hospital care in Northern NSW in coming months, according to the region’s health boss.

Northern NSW Health District chief executive Wayne Jones said the area would from a pandemic to an endemic health response as the benefits of an increased vaccination rate kicked in.

Mr Jones has resumed his role after five months supporting the statewide response to the delta outbreak in Sydney.

He said the system would have more resources available to respond to Covid, but it wasn’t clear how much would be needed and for how long.

“That’s what we will learn while we go through this,” Mr Jones said.

“We are transitioning now from pandemic to endemic.

“Covid will be with us, in our health programs, for years.”

He said reopening the economy but also allowing families to meet physically was vital for the community.

“I anticipate the numbers of Covid positive patients will increase but I don’t expect that will translate into a huge burden into hospitals, based on what we are seeing in Sydney and internationally,” he said.

“We continue to keep a close eye on Covid numbers but we need to recognise and manage hospitals as areas that we need to keep safe to protect the staff and patients in those environments.”

Registered nurse Judy Byrne from First Light Healthcare offers a Covid-19 vaccination to a Norco ice-cream factory worker in Lismore last month.

Mr Jones said that even if hospitalisation rates were not high, vaccinated people would still need to isolate if they caught the virus.

“People who are positive will still be required to adhere to health orders, stay home and isolate for periods of time, but that length of isolation is now decreasing, particularly if you are vaccinated,” he said.

“If you are unvaccinated it’s still 14 days. If you are vaccinated I believe it’s seven days.”

Five months away from home

Mr Jones returned to the region recently after five months working with NSW Health responding to the Delta outbreak.

He was part of a team that ensured there was capacity to manage Covid treatment while normal health services continued.

“I was asked in June to go down and relieve for four weeks, and then there was a significant increase in numbers, and then the first Saturday I was there we went into lockdown,” Mr Jones said.

“Now that thing have settled down, I’m pleased to be back.”

Director of clinical operations Lynn Weir managed health services and the pandemic response for the Tweed, Northern Rivers and Clarence Valley areas during those five months.

Pharmacist James Smith, co-owner of Coraki Pharmacy, with some of the Astra Zeneca Covid doses he has been administering to Northern Rivers residents.

Mr Jones said vaccination levels in Northern NSW Aboriginal communities had reached 71 per cent first dose.

“We still need to improve on that, but it has come up enormously in the last four weeks, thanks to the work of our Aboriginal medical services and the community,” he said.

“We will continue to offer mobile units to rural communities so we can make sure that vaccination is available to them for weeks to come.”