Hospitals establish clinics to fight fever

QUEENSLAND has set up fever clinics in key hospital emergency departments as residents returning from mainland China are told to quarantine themselves to protect the state from the coronavirus.

Two Chinese tourists in isolation in the Gold Coast University Hospital are Queensland’s only known cases of the novel virus, with all tests yesterday proving negative.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the parents of more than 3700 children who had recently returned from China, including Hong Kong, had all been contacted to advise them to keep students away from school, TAFE and childcare for 14 days.

Her Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said that under changes to national protocols for containing the virus, announced at the weekend, anyone returning to Australia from China would be told to remain in quarantine for a fortnight.

Dr Young said systems had been put in place for every flight into Queensland from mainland China, including Hong Kong, to be assessed by a team of nurses.

She said four nurses met a flight from China into Brisbane International Airport at 5.30am yesterday to check every passenger’s temperature for signs of the novel coronavirus and to advise them of the need to remain isolated for two weeks. The nurses collected passenger contact details for all those on board.

“Those people will receive a phone call from public health staff every single day during that isolation period to make sure that they remain well and that they have what they need,” Dr Young said.

Fever clinics have also been set up in the emergency departments of key public hospitals in and around Brisbane.

The novel coronavirus has claimed more than 300 lives and infected more than 14,300 people.