Coronavirus Central Coast: What you need to know as council calls extraordinary meeting
Central Coast Council has called a special meeting as a result of COVID-19. It comes as 5 Lands Walk is postponed, hospital visiting hours change and the PM sets new rules for aged care and social gatherings.
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An extraordinary meeting has been called by Central Coast Council as a result of COVID-19.
Mayor Lisa Matthews has called the meeting for Monday at the Wyong chamber, however the public will only be able to watch via webcast.
“We are currently experiencing a situation we have not encountered before and as leaders of the community we believe that taking measures to protect our community and ourselves against the spread of COVID-19 is vital,” Cr Matthews said.
Mayor Lisa Matthews said the shorter agenda – along with closing the meeting to the public – minimised the risk and adhered to social distancing advice from NSW Health. The council is expected to make a long-term plan for future meetings.
It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a ban on gatherings of 100 people or more this morning.
This has led to the postponing of the 5 Lands Walk, which will be rescheduled to a date in 2021.
Central Coast COVID-19 cases
The number of confirmed cases on COVID-19 on the Central Coast remains at two.
The Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) has advised residents that the two cases include a woman in her 30s and a woman in her 40s who had returned from overseas.
Both are self-isolating and are in contact with their local health unit.
Testing clinics are now open at Gosford and Wyong hospitals for people who have developed cold and/or flu-like symptoms who have returned from overseas in the last 14 days or have been in contact with a confirmed case.
They are advised to contact their GP or call Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for advice before heading to a testing centre.
Changes to hospital visiting hours
Central Coast Local Health District has announced changes to hospital visiting hours to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
CCLHD chief executive Dr Andrew Montague said visiting hours have been reduced with restrictions limiting the number of people who can visit patients.
“Visiting hours at Gosford, Wyong and Woy Woy hospitals and Long Jetty Health Centre are
now 6pm to 8pm,” he said.
“We ask that patients are only visited by one visitor during these visiting hours who is either their partner, carer, guardian or nominated significant other.”
Dr Montague said people must be feeling well if they planned to visit someone in hospital.
“In line with current advice, visitors must not enter any of our hospitals or healthcare facilities if they have a fever or a cold and flu-like illness or if they have been overseas in the last 14
days,” Dr Montague said.
“People who have been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19 in the last 14 days must
also not visit loved ones in our hospitals or healthcare centre.”
He said certain areas such as maternity, mental health and children’s services have different
arrangements in place. For guidance visit the CCLHD website.
For other area including palliative care, people are advised to talk to Nursing Unit Managers.
Can I visit an aged care facility?
Mr Morrison also announced further guidelines for aged care facilities to stop the spread of COVID-19. These include banning unwell visitors or people who have returned from overseas and restricting visiting time limits, with a maximum of two people per visit.
There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at any aged care facility on the coast.
Peninsula Village chief executive officer Shane Neaves said aged care facilities had already been implementing their own strategies to reduce COVID-19 cases.
Peninsula Villages, which has 283 residents over three facilities, has been taking the temperature of everyone who enters the building as well as enforcing hand sanitising.
“This is for both staff and visitors,” Mr Neaves said. “People are also required to sign a form saying they are in good health and haven’t travelled overseas recently.
“At the moment it’s fear of the unknown, this is a virus we are not too familiar with.”
Mr Neaves said some residents were more concerned than others, however said they were used to influenza outbreaks.
“They are also trusting that we are doing the right thing on their behalf,” he said.
Peninsula Villages’ Clinical Nurse Educator Alana Hardman said lock down procedures for respiratory conditions required three cases within 72 hours.
“If a single person contracts COVID-19 they will be isolated and we will enforce strict infection control,” she said.
“At the moment we are doing whatever we can to prevent the virus from entering the facility. “We are running staff education on what coronavirus is and running demonstrations and assessments on hand hygiene and wearing of personal protective equipment.”
Ms Hardman said they were avoiding instilling panic by educating people on general hygiene and encouraging people not well enough to visit loved ones to use other means of communication including phones and social media.
‘STOP HOARDING’
One of the strongest messages from Mr Morrison was to “stop hoarding”, saying it was the most disappointing behaviour he had seen in relation to this crisis.
Central Coast supermarkets are being cleared out of essential items due to hoarding.
“It is not something people should be doing,” Mr Morrison said.
“It is distracting attention and efforts that need to go into other measures. It’s ridiculous, it’s un-Australian and it must stop.”