Patient at centre of PPE breaches tests positive for more contagious UK variant

Both WA Health acting director general James Williamson and WA Premier Mark McGowan said the airport worker posed no threat to the community because they tested negative to the virus.

“At the moment we know the individual who had close contact at the airport is not at risk of transmitting,” Dr Williamson said yesterday.

“If you haven’t got the virus, and its a very sensitive test that we do, then you’re not going to transmit it.”

The St John Ambulance officer was driving the ambulance and not dealing with the patient directly but was not wearing a mask despite being less than 1.5 metres away from them.

A security guard alerted WA Health of the PPE breach which led to authorities discovering the other two breaches.

The nurse breached PPE requirements by not wearing a gown when she attended the patient’s hotel room for a welfare check.

A review into the incidents and any other past breaches has begun but Mr McGowan said he was shocked by the breaches and urged healthcare workers to avoid complacency.

“Clearly there is complacency and mistakes are creeping in and I would just urge our health workforce and security and cleaning [staff] to continue to adhere to your training, continue to adhere to the advice,” he said.

Mr McGowan also urged anyone working in the hotel quarantine system to report breaches when they saw them.

“All I would say to staff across the system if you observe the breach report it, make sure it is fixed,” he said.

Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup said he was confident WA had a “robust” hotel quarantine system but still called for an independent review to root out any flaws.

“What we do know is from the doctors and nurses, the paramedics out there, they are concerned about the lack of PPE, they are concerned about some of the shortages that they find in hospitals when it comes to accessing PPE,” he said.

“I’m very confident that we have a robust hotel quarantine system in place in WA, it’s our first line of defence against COVID-19, what I hope we do is that it is as best as possible.”

Two new cases of COVID-19 were reported overnight bringing the state’s total to 874.

WA Health is monitoring 18 active cases and 847 people have recovered from the virus.

There have been 648,211 COVID-19 tests performed in WA and on Wednesday 1420 people presented to COVID clinics – 1412 were assessed and 1409 were swabbed.