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Queensland health’s ‘dynamic duo’ fly in to latest virus hot zone

Queensland’s chief medical officer and the deputy premier will travel to Rockhampton today as an aged care facility remains in lockdown.

May 18, 2020, updated May 18, 2020

Dr Jeannette Young and Steven Miles will oversee measures put in place to prevent a possible coronavirus outbreak after a nurse tested positive on Thursday.

A total of 235 staff and residents of the North Rockhampton Nursing Centre have been cleared, with officials waiting on another 37 results.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said while the region wasn’t out of the woods, the rapid work to contain and stop the virus is pleasing.

“We’ve been planning for this and it worked like clockwork,” she said.

“Please go and get tested because we want to absolutely make sure everything is under control.”

The case that triggered the lockdown will be investigated by Queensland Health after the woman went to work while sick and awaiting the results of her COVID-19 test.

Palaszczuk said as a nurse, she should have known better.

But Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said it was a cop-out to blame the employee.

“As a nurse myself, either the proper procedures weren’t in place or they weren’t followed in Rockhampton,” she said.

Bates called on the government to ensure the correct practices were being enforced at each of Queensland’s state-run homes.

Palaszczuk said the message instructing people to stay home if they were sick had been abundantly clear.

-AAP

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