Two Sydney doctors with the coronavirus attended conference with 77 other medical professionals

Two Sydney doctors with the coronavirus went to a conference that was attended by 77 medical practitioners and professionals.

Two Sydney doctors with the coronavirus went to a conference that was attended by 77 medical practitioners and professionals.

A 53-year-old doctor working at Ryde Hospital and a female doctor working at Liverpool Hospital attended the gathering on February 18.

“We have had tracing going on,” NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters. “This is a bit like a police investigation in a sense, trying to track who is coming into contact with who and what possible associations there may have been.

“But what we do know is that doctor, the 53-year-old doctor, who was working at Ryde was in attendance at that conference.

“New South Wales Health has been working very hard to try to contact each of those doctors and other attendees of the conference, so far it has been positive, nobody else showing any symptoms of coronavirus.”

NSW Minister for Heath Brad Hazzard said there appears to be an “evolution” in the spread of the virus. Picture: AAP Image/James Gourley

He said there is an “evolution” happening in the spread of coronavirus around the world.

While there had been “no substantial change” overnight, seven of the states infections appeared to have been “on-soil,” he said. There are currently 22 infections in the state.

The female doctor working at Liverpool Hospital is among six new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Sydney.

NSW’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the female doctor was diagnosed on March 4 and had no history of overseas travel.

“We are immediately establishing which staff and patients may need to self-isolate and be tested for COVID-19 should they be unwell,” she said.

This comes after a 95-year-old woman became the second person to die from the coronavirus in Australia, with seven more cases confirmed nationally.

The woman was a resident at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge nursing home facility at Macquarie Park, where a 50-year-old worker was diagnosed with the virus earlier this week, NSW Health confirmed in a statement. The woman died in hospital on Tuesday.

The employee worked with 13 residents at the lodge. An 82-year-old man is now being treated in hospital for the virus, while a third resident aged in her 70s was also diagnosed on Wednesday.

Eleven of the residents have been placed into isolation.

The Australian reports that staff at the home have collectively called in sick because of fears over the outbreak.

Mr Hazzard told the newspaper his department was forced to make a snap decision and cobble together a workforce of nursing staff to care for the elderly residents once it was clear existing staff wouldn’t be turning up.

The carer was working at Dorothy Henderson Lodge. Picture: Supplied

BaptistCare said the death of a Dorothy Henderson Lodge resident “under these circumstances is very distressing” for the family and team members.

“Our staff have shown great dedication in the past days in their commitment to care for our residents and we continue to bolster our regular teams on the ground with additional specialist support from other locations across the state. NSW Health also has a team of experts guiding the response at Macquarie Park,” she said.

“Working together, we have taken a firm approach to ensure any staff identified as being at risk are isolated and we have taken the added precaution of confining residents to their rooms across the centre. The NSW Health Infection Control team are also working with our team on the ground to provide additional support and reduce the risk of further exposure.”

The five other new cases in NSW include a female doctor who works at Liverpool Hospital, a female patient from the Northern Beaches, a male from Cronulla and a female who is believed to have returned from the Philippines, NSW Health said.

There was also the first confirmed case in the Northern Territory.

It brings the state’s total number of cases to 22 and the national count to 50.

“The female doctor who was diagnosed on March 4 had no history of overseas travel. We are immediately establishing which staff and patients may need to self-isolate and be tested for COVID-19 should they be unwell,” NSW Health added.

The woman who is believed to have travelled from the Philippines is aged in her 60s and arrived back in Australia on March 3.

“Her travel details are being obtained and will be disclosed if she posed a risk to any other passengers on her flight,” NSW Health said.

A suspected coronavirus patient arrives at Westmead Hospital. Picture: Steve Tyson

‘WE CAN’T TRACK THE SOURCE’

Addressing the nursing home cases on Wednesday, Mr Hazzard said the carer was working on 24 February when she started developing flu-like symptoms.

“And so we did the checks. And, of course, we’re aware that it’s likely that she could have been capable of passing on the coronavirus from at least the day before, 24 hours, so that’s 23 February,” he said.

He said the woman was a “much-loved” and longstanding member of staff at a residential care home which is part of Baptist Care.

“It is concerning when we have somebody present with coronavirus and we can’t track the source,” Mr Hazzard said.

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“In this case, this much-loved staff member had not travelled. She had not been overseas. She had not been to any of the hot spots around the world. So, that raises the question, how did she end up with coronavirus?”

This comes amid fears Sydney doctor may have spread the coronavirus to a large number of patients.

Forty staff members who work closely with the 53-year-old male doctor at Ryde Hospital have been isolated.

They include 13 doctors, 23 nurses and four other health workers. The infected doctor is in a stable condition at Westmead Hospital.

However, authorities say the doctor had already come into contact with a “large and diverse” range of patients in his workplace.

“We still don’t know how he acquired the infection,’’ chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

“We are doing an investigation as we speak. He did not care for any of our positive cases but we are doing some additional investig­ations into what patients he saw, to see whether there were any undiagnosed cases.”

A further eight patients of the doctor are showing no symptoms, while 29 other patients identified as casual contacts are being chased up.

A man in Victoria was also diagnosed with coronavirus on Wednesday after travelling to Australia from Iran.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says the man in his 30s became unwell on Sunday after returning to Victoria from Iran on February 26.

He went to an emergency department after speaking with a nurse on call, with his positive test result confirmed late on Tuesday.