With COVID-19 so active in the community, it is an unfortunate inevitability that there will be exposures in hospitals – and on every occasion these are managed in line with the Department of Health guidelines.

We currently have a number of patients and families isolating in the RCH, including in our Kookaburra ward, as a precautionary measure due to exposures. These exposures are not related to positive patients.

This isn’t our first exposure and sadly it won’t be our last: this is the reality of hospitals in a pandemic.

The safety and care of our patients and families remains our highest priority.

We’ve been dealing with this for more than 18 months now. Our staff are in the right PPE and we’re minimising any unnecessary movement of patients – we’re doing everything we can to keep people safe.

There are things we can all do and steps to take to keep each other safe, including getting vaccinated, staying home if you are unwell and getting tested immediately if you have any symptoms of COVID-19.

Thank you for your continued support and playing your part to keep us all safe.

A reminder that children’s COVID-19 testing is available at our Respiratory Infection Clinic, open daily between 8.30am to 4.15pm https://www.rch.org.au/covid/Respiratory_Infection_Clinic. 

To keep up to date with all confirmed COVID-19 public exposure sites, visit the DH website here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/exposure-sites.