Hospitals and aged care homes in Victoria will have to conduct physical distancing assessments of their tea rooms, sleeping areas, locker rooms and other common facilities in an attempt to drive down infections among staff.
Healthcare workers will have to sign declarations stating they are symptom-free when starting their shifts., detailing efforts to curb spread of the disease in high-risk caring industries that are linked to more than 60 per cent of the state's active cases. The Australian Medical Association's Victorian president Julian Rait said morale among his members had improved but there was concern among doctors in training, who were most likely to be working with larger numbers of patients.Associate Professor Rait, who sits on the healthcare worker infection prevention taskforce, said he would like to see infection control protocols expedited wherever possible.
He said emergency doctors had been encouraged to spend more time working at individual sites, rather than moving across multiple hospitals.
Hospital CEO are a worry