60 staff stood down at North West Regional Hospital as coronavirus outbreak investigation continues

A total of 23 cases are associated with the hospital cluster.

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15 of the cases are healthcare workers, two are close contacts, five are current patients and one is a person who has been discharged.

Of the current patients, four are at the NWRH and one is at the Mersey Community Hospital.

Chief Medical Officer Tony Lawler said the outbreak now involved staff at both the NWRH and the North West Private Hospital who have tested positive for coronavirus.

"Tracing of contacts at the NWPH is being undertaken by the NWPH with support from health services," Professor Lawler said.

"In addition, a number of patients at the NWPH have tested positive for coronavirus and have been transferred for care in isolation at the NWRH."

Professor Lawler said, in light of these developments, no further patients would be transferred from the NWRH to the private hospital.

"However, we would like it to be very clear that maternity services at the NWPH are not compromised and have not been affected," Professor Lawler said.

"It has been assured to me today that the staff member at the NWPH had no contact with maternity services.

"The Secretary [of the Department of Health] was very clear in strenuously outlining to the chief executive at the NWPH that there was to be no mixing of staff."

Professor Lawler said about 60 staff had been stood down on paid leave to quarantine.

"Exact numbers are difficult to ascertain given that this crosses across all professional groups, across the Mersey and the NWRH, and that a number of those that have been furloughed previously have since tested positive for coronavirus," he said.

"Seven staff have been provided accommodation [because] they don't want to go home [to quarantine].

"The isolation and furloughing of staff has had an impact on service delivery, alongside the recommendations from Public Heath on which areas of the hospital we can use.

"But I've been very impressed by which the extent to which other regions have been willing to pull together.

"We are a single statewide health system and we are working in a single statewide fashion."

Professor Lawler said, in terms of heath services in the North-West, there would be no change to the service profile at the Mersey.

"That is, the emergency department is closed between the hours of 10pm and 8am, during the day ambulances are diverted and there is a low-acuity service being provided," he said.

"We will be looking at redeploying staff from the Mersey who have volunteered to assist at the NWRH as appropriate.

"The emergency department at the NWRH is open as usual. If you do feel you need emergency care, you should seek emergency care.

"The service we are continuing to provide at the NWRH is safe."

Professor Lawler said the Outbreak Management Team was working to determine the source of the cases at the private hospital.

"We have 23 separate timelines that have to be aligned and by doing that, and identifying points of contact between patients and staff, that's how we would be looking to identify the process of transmission," he said.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney additional medical experts would be joining the team investigating the Burnie cluster.

"We are deploying a further field epidemiologist, a further public health physician as well as a public health nurse," Ms Courtney said.

"We are making sure that all the resources that need to be available, either on the ground here or more remotely, are being deployed."

Ms Courtney said an expression of interest process was being conducted for further health staff.

"Further staff are ready to be deployed, if they are needed. That isn't the case at the moment as we are working through the operational matters," Ms Courtney said.

"We know we are going to need a range of healthcare workers to support us in the coming weeks and months ahead."

Ms Courtney said the Department had already advertised for midwives, nurses and allied health professionals, and 72 nurses and 24 health professionals had put themselves forward through that process.

She said the Department had also advertised on Thursday for doctors to assist in the COVID-19 response.

Work is also being done with the University of Tasmania and health professional students to look at opportunities where they could assist.

"And at the same time we have an additional 80 nurses who have been brought into the Tasmanian Health Service since early February 2020," Ms Courtney said.

"We are making gains, we are bolstering our workforce but there is still work to do."

As of Thursday, there are total of 107 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Tasmania.

Sadly, three people have died and 48 people have now recovered.

A total of 3795 tests have been conducted.

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