2 November 2021
We are pleased to advise you that NSW Health have provided further information on visitation to aged care homes. We want to share what this means for visiting a Whiddon aged care home. We also wanted to remind you of some important guidelines when visiting, to help keep everyone in our family safe.
Please note the new guidelines below:
- Residents are permitted to have two fully vaccinated visitors aged 12 years and over plus two children aged under 12 years per day
- Visitors aged 12 years and over must have received a second dose of a COVID vaccination at least 14 days prior to their visit.
- Children under 12 years are permitted to visit, provided they are accompanied by a fully vaccinated person
- Where visits include a child under 12, where possible, visits are to take place in an outdoor area and the child should wear a mask
- Visits must not take place in communal areas
- All visitors must wear a surgical mask while visiting indoors. For reasons when masks can be removed please see Additional Advice – Mandatory mask wearing.
Please note that you must:
- pre-book your visits – you will not be able to visit without a booking. Please note that the number of visitors allowed into a home at any one time may be restricted to enable management of capacity limits.
- refrain from visiting if you have COVID-19 symptoms
- refrain from visiting you are a close or casual contact of a person with confirmed COVID-19, unless they have completed their isolation and testing requirements
- refrain from visiting if you are a fully vaccinated person who has been overseas in the last 7 day. Additionally, they must show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test taken on or after day 7 following their arrival
- refrain from visiting if you are not vaccinated and have been overseas in the last 14 days.
- refrain from visiting if you are waiting for a COVID-19 test result
- practice good hand hygiene and socially distance
- wear a surgical mask
- check in to the Service NSW app AND Whiddon’s check-in system when you visit
COVID-19 vaccine booster dose
Please note that the government are rolling out a national vaccine COVID-19 vaccine booster program for people in residential aged care. Every resident living in an aged care facility who has received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will be offered a Pfizer vaccine booster dose at least six months after their second vaccination. The team at the care home will start, or may have already started, to discuss this with you or your loved one and to gain written consent for the vaccination. Please find further information on the COVID-19 vaccine booster by clicking here.
Thank you