State’s quick action landed PPE supplies

TASMANIA spent $42.2m on personal protective equipment between March and June 30 as it ordered in face masks, gowns and gloves for health workers during the peak of the state’s coronavirus emergency.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney told a public accounts committee inquiry into Tasmania’s COVID-19 emergency the state had never run out of PPE supply but procuring enough hospital-grade sanitiser had been a struggle as countries around the world scrambled for stock.

Tasmania now has a stockpile of PPE in case there is another outbreak. The stockpile includes 11 million surgical masks, 600,000 gowns, 1.2 million pairs of goggles, eight million gloves and 170,000 face shields.

“I think the team did a fantastic job in procurement when every other country in the world was ordering supplies and ordering aggressively,” Ms Courtney told the inquiry.

In late February and March,

PPE monitoring was a significant issue for health authorities, she said, and respirators, hand sanitiser and other goods needed to be locked down due to theft.

Ms Courtney told the inquiry all 17 recommendations put forward in the interim report into the outbreak in the state’s NorthWest had been implemented.

Of Tasmania’s 226 coronavirus cases, 138 cases were linked to the North-West outbreak, including 80 health staff. One third of the infections were acquired overseas with the rest transmitted locally.

Two Ruby Princess cruise ship passengers were identified as the likely source of infection in the North West Regional Hospital and director of public health Mark Veitch said laboratory work had since proved that was the case.

The first COVID-19 test was conducted in Tasmania on March 5 and about 1000 Tasmanians are still being tested each day.

In the 2019-20 financial year, that testing cost the state almost $10m.

Dr Veitch said the state was moving away from testing people without symptoms who were not from high-risk settings.

People could test positive within two days of being exposed to the virus, the public health director said.

Chief Medical Officer Tony Lawler said lessons had been learned from the North-West outbreak and infection control training had been ramped up for health care workers.