Second Sydney hospital worker tests positive
Another healthcare worker at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital has tested positive to COVID-19.
It comes as more than 100 patients and staff at two Sydney hospitals are in isolation after an unvaccinated student nurse who worked across multiple wards tested positive to COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The case comes just days after thousands of student nurses, doctors and dentists at Sydney University were told on Sunday night they must have had at least one vaccine dose to continue clinical placements in hospitals.
NSW recorded 22 new local coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, 11 of whom were in isolation for their full infectious period.
However, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant revealed on Wednesday that a student nurse in her 20s who worked at Fairfield and Royal North Shore hospitals for five days while potentially infectious had returned a positive test late on Tuesday night.
A spokesperson for the University of Technology Sydney confirmed the woman was studying in their nursing program.
Dr Chant said patients who may have come in contact with the woman, who will be included in Thursday’s numbers, had been contacted and were being tested. The woman’s infection is not yet linked to a known case.
“A household member is positive and we are testing another household member, and we are doing repeat testing on another household member,” Dr Chant said, noting “sometimes the direction of transmission is very difficult to understand”.
Source: smh
