What can Victoria learn from addressing the coronavirus outbreak in Tasmania?

As millions of people in Greater Melbourne are coping with the reopening of the blockade and the expansion of the COVID-19 case, residents of northwestern Tasmania have a pretty good idea of ​​how they feel. There will be

The area endured several weeks of blockade under the strictest regulations in Australia at the time after it occurred at Burnie Hospital.

Outbreaks increased to 131 COVID-19 cases, associated with 12 deaths and forced the closure of two hospitals.

Sent more Before it came under control, 1,000 health workers and thousands of close contacts were quarantined.

So can the Victorian people trying to respond to the current outbreak learn something from the Tasmanian experience?

How similar are the Tasmanian and Victorian outbreaks?

Outbreaks in northwestern Tasmania began in hospitals and primarily affected health care workers and patients and their close contact.

Professor Liner McIntyre of the University of New South Wales says the outbreak in Melbourne is different because it is primarily caused by community infections.

” [the Tasmanian outbreak] Being in the hospital, it was relatively easy to stop the epidemic by identifying who was tracked, contacted and identified.

“In Melbourne, it’s a different situation where the first epidemic in the community started.

“At the time it became clear that an infectious disease had occurred, there was considerable spread, and the extent of that spread is unknown.”

How will you respond to the occurrence of COVID-19?

Despite differences in outbreaks, the response was largely the same.

Professor Dale Fisher of the National University of Singapore states that there is a consistent component to any effective outbreak response.

“There are actually four major pillars: case management, epidemiology, logistics, risk communication and community engagement,” he said.

“These pillars only need to be adapted to the local situation.”

recently Opinion articles posted on the Victorian Department of Health website, Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said Victoria’s strategy for testing, tracking, and isolating COVID-19 cases is similar to its Tasmanian response.

“It’s what the Tasmanians have done successfully northwest of their state, and that’s what the Victorian team is doing right now,” he wrote.

“Implementing the Northwest Tasmanian model in an urban environment is challenging, but the actions Victoria is taking are appropriate and appropriate.”

Did Tasmania’s response succeed?

Professor Adrian Esterman of the University of South Australia rated Tasmania’s response as effective.

“Obviously that [successful] The number of cases died soon, and you didn’t have a new case for a long time,” he said.

“And it was done quickly. Speed ​​is essential.”

Professor Estherman said Tasmania has some natural advantages when it comes to responding to the outbreak of COVID-19.

“Tasmania is lucky in the sense that it is an island, which works very well in an epidemic situation,” he said.

“That part of Tasmania [where the outbreak occurred] It’s fairly isolated, so it’s difficult to spread to Hobart, for example.

“Tasmania is a completely different scenario than Victoria.”

Professor Alison Ben, director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, said the outbreak in Tasmania showed the need to provide support to help people comply with public health advice and restrictions. I will.

In the interim report on the outbreak, some hospital staff continued to work despite the symptoms of COVID-19.

“There are various reasons why people rationalize that it’s okay to go to work, even if they have mild symptoms,” said Ben.

“We need to learn where those things happen, predict them as much as we can in the future, and develop as many strategies as possible to mitigate their risk.”

Lean on me: How Tasmania taught other states to ask for help

So far, Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatesworth, says all outbreaks in Australia so far have taught.

He cited Tasmania’s decision to ask the Australian Defense Forces for help and the use of staff from the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AusMAT) to operate some of the affected hospitals when they restarted.

“Our willingness to take advantage of cross-border assistance to help the province of northwestern Tasmania,” said Courtworth.

“The idea is that we should not consider ourselves to be individual nations because of this public health emergency, but we know that everything that happens in an individual place becomes a national problem.” I am.”

Dr. Courtworth said the success of most Australian states and territories in suppressing or eliminating the COVID-19 incident meant that they could afford the resources to help the Victorian outbreak. It was

“We’ve got all the contact-tracking capabilities that can be transferred remotely to Victoria to help with the fairly serious numbers that need a lot of effort to track contracts,” he said.

“I think it’s safe to say that our understanding of cross-jurisdictional support was first tested in northwestern Tasmania.”

Why is communication important?

The basic model for outbreak response is the same, but it must be adapted to the specific circumstances and settings of each outbreak.

The Tasmanian and Victorian outbreak communities look very different.

According to the latest census data, about 114,000 people live in rural areas, mainly in northwestern Tasmania, accounting for only about 20% of the population born abroad.

Greater Melbourne has a population of close to 5 million, about 40% are born abroad and a third speak a language other than English.

Many of the outbreaks in Melbourne occur within culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and Dr. Margaret Hefernan of RMIT University said that health authorities struggle to communicate effectively with them. Say

When dealing with outbreaks, communication needs to be adjusted to the language, culture and beliefs of the affected communities, and it is essential to ask community leaders to help shape these public health messages.

“The lesson we learned from Tasmania is that quick response is important, but it must be tailored to the specific characteristics of the community you expect to respond to and comply with,” she said.

“It’s very important to have something called a self-determining approach that requires community leaders to be very involved from the beginning.”

Why should Victoria pay close attention to healthcare professionals?

Professor Fischer says healthcare professionals can provide the first indication that an outbreak may be occurring and can help authorities respond quickly.

“It’s often the health workers who signal the outbreak. Tasmania didn’t invent it,” he said.

“So, if a couple of staff suddenly have atypical pneumonia, someone goes,” How did that happen? Let’s do a COVID test, it’s positive, see if there are patients let’s do it.”

Professor McIntyre says the hospital’s origin of outbreaks in Tasmania demonstrates the importance of protecting health workers during outbreaks.

“Since we’ve seen dozens of healthcare workers infected in Victoria, I think it requires us all to stand up and be careful,” she said.

“We need to question the assumption that healthcare workers dealing with COVID-19 need only surgical masks. We need to take a more precautionary approach.

“In Barney, if one healthcare worker was infected, it might have to quarantine dozens, which would have a huge impact on healthcare workers.

“If you had to close due to an out-of-control outbreak at Royal Melbourne Hospital or St. Vincent Hospital, you can imagine it in a huge city like Melbourne, but that would have a huge impact.”