Community
6 May, 2021
Positive COVID Milestone
THE Cairns Hinterland Hospital Health Service (CHHHS) have now conducted 100,000 COVID tests across their testing clinics in the region.
CHHHS Director of Nursing COVID-19 Tracey Bancroft paid tribute to her team responsible for this achievement.
“Over 100,000 COVID tests, that’s the highest number outside the south-east corner.
Whilst COVID has not had the same impact in Cairns as it has in other centres throughout Australia, the demands have still been high on our frontline medical staff.
“Our pathology team have had to work overtime to achieve this along with our staff here in Cairns as well as the rural sites, whilst responding to numerous outbreaks across Australia, we have had to remain agile to meet the needs of our community.
With over 250,000 people living in the CHHHS area, performing 100,000 COVID tests in 12 months represents an enormous effort.
“The community is still responding and coming out to test, they are doing the right thing”, she said.
With the vaccination schedule now moving into the 2A category, Bancroft still encourage people not to get complacent.
“Even if you have been vaccinated, should you have any signs or symptoms, we still recommend that you come to get tested.”
The vaccination rollout continues in Cairns, with over 13,000 vaccinations, with 4,800 of those being Health Care workers.
Rhiannon Fawkner, a Registered Nurse working in the Fever Clinics has found the work extremely rewarding.
“People presenting generally are coming in because they have symptoms or travelled to a hot spot and need to be tested before isolating.
“People are usually getting their results back within 8 – 24 hours.” she added, “it is good to see such a strong community response.”
