This afternoon there was another South Australian press conference to discuss new COVID-19 developments.
Key points
David Place, the CEO of the South Australian Ambulance Service spoke on their new plans to be prepared for Coronavirus. He said, we have developed and put on the SA Ambulance website today, our COVID plan, so the public can be confident that we can respond when necessary. It’s a good plan. SA Ambulance stands ready.
We are fast-tracking 36 graduates, who are joining 23 of their counterparts who joined weeks ago to increase the number of personnel able to respond to the pandemic. There are also 18 who are undergoing training to be able to join those 59 in the near future. So, altogether there will be 77 new paramedics on the road, supported by 20 elective ambulance officers.
On top of that, we are fast-tracking training on Triple 0 call operators.
In the country, we are working with volunteers to bolster numbers if needed. We also have a familiarisation course running for other emergency services drivers (such as CFS) in the country to assist if necessary.
In regards to being able to turn over ambulances as quickly as possible, CMI Toyota will be cleaning and sterilising vehicles after suspected cases have traveled in ambulances. This will allow paramedics to leave that ambulance, and transfer into new sterilised vehicles, keeping everyone safer. To further facilitate this, 2 new cleaning stations are being established.
Read the SA Ambulance COVID-19 plan here.
SA COVID-19 Numbers Update
Dr Mike Cusack, Executive Director Medical Services NALHM took the podium to give us an update on the latest numbers. He said we’ve only had 2 cases in South Australia the last 24 hours.
That brings the total to 409 cases.
The two new cases are from a person in their 40s and one in their 60s.
There have been 51 recovered from virus. We expect the number of people recovered to increase as we collate the numbers.
There have been no new cases from the Ruby Princess. To date, there have been 120 cases related to cruise shops.
There are currently 19 people in the RAH with COVID-19. They are aged 52-77 years. Those admitted to the ICU has increased to 9 people.
They are still investigating the airport cluster. The numbers attributed to that cluster have increased by 3 to 28. There are 11 secondary contacts including family. Those 3 new cases (one of which is a baggage handler) attributed, have been included in previous numbers.
Anyone sick with symptoms, who has been to airport in past 2 weeks, needs to self isolate and present for testing.
There’s also a new resource for kids. Check the SA Health website – there’s a coronavirus book for children with everything they need to know. Provides a framework to discuss the virus with kids. There will also be hard copies in paediatric clinics around the state. Read the booklet here.
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