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Concerning figures from Australia and New Zealand show that rates of hospital-acquired COVID-19 infection remain at ‘alarming’ levels, reports Radio New Zealand.
COVID-19 remains New Zealand’s most harmful infectious disease, the report says, and Australian data indicates between 10 and 15 per-cent of Covid deaths are from hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
Speaking with RNZ’s Katie Kenny, ACIPC President A/Prof Stéphane Bouchoucha said, that if hospitals were recording similar numbers of fatalities from staph aureus bloodstream infections, swift action would be taken. These infections are tracked and reported in Australia and New Zealand, however there’s no comparable surveillance of COVID-19 in either country.
“We seem to want to revert to a pre-pandemic world, despite what we’ve learnt from Covid and other respiratory viruses,” A/Prof Bouchoucha said. “We know through wastewater testing when there are Covid peaks and troughs, but we need surveillance also in clinical settings.”
During surges, hospitals could reintroduce masking, for example, he added, while also decrying the scrapping of existing policies countering COVID spread, such as a recent SA Health decision to scrap COVID leave, and the requirement for staff to stay home after testing positive.
“People are going to turn up to work sick,” he said. “We seem to ignore the people at the centre of this. We’re dealing with people losing their lives. [The proposal] might benefit the system, but what harm are we causing to patients?”
Also highlighted in the article is the importance of using airborne mitigations such as masks and improving baseline standards for hospital ventilation.
Read the full Radio NZ article by clicking the link below: