3 September 2021
Dear Team,
There has been some confusion amongst staff in regards to what constitutes an outbreak and the need to wear Precautionary PPE. To clarify, I have listed some points below where staff or other visitors to site may need to wear full PPE and how and when an outbreak would be declared.
PPE
- Visiting doctors and other allied health professionals as there is an increased risk of exposure to site due to the doctor or allied health professional seeing multiple people in a variety of settings. As this clearly increases the risk to site the expectation is that they will wear as a minimum a N95 Mask and if they are conducting a physical examination full PPE.
- Residents who have potentially had exposure due to hospital transfer. A risk assessment would be conducted on return. Based on this risk assessment, staff caring for that resident may be required to wear full PPE for the two-week isolation period.
- Approximately 1 in every 3,500 Rapid Antigen Tests will return a false positive result. If this occurs a formal PCR Test will need to be conducted on site and the affected staff will be sent home until the formal result is available. Please note depending on the circumstances this may just the affected staff member or a number of staff members. (it is of note that EP conducted 3000 tests per week).
- Close Contacts. If a staff member has been deemed a close contact-other staff on site may need to wear PPE until a formal test has been completed and Whiddon is made aware of the result.
- As an additional precaution some staff that move between areas will be asked to wear N95 masks. This is because there is an increased risk of cross infection to the site if staff move between different areas.
Notifying staff of an Outbreak
- When an outbreak and lockdown is declared, this is done in consultation with the PHU only after a positive case has been confirmed. that has been on site.
- If this was to occur the following steps would take place: –
- All staff in the affected building would be advised to wear full PPE
- The building would be locked down
- Transfer the positive person to hospital or to Raines House
- All staff would be notified of the positive case
- Public Health would be notified and they would provide advice to the site on how to manage the situation
Signage
If there was an Outbreak a sign would be placed at the entry to the building, so that everyone would be aware prior to entering.
If there is a requirement to wear PPE in certain areas, signage indicating this will be in place.
Thank you