Health Minister Brad Hazzard has dropped a major hint that changes to hospital visitation guidelines are in the works as the state recorded another spike in Covid infections.
NSW recorded another jump in case numbers on Wednesday with 10,3112 new infections and 20 deaths.
Hospitalisations and ICU admissions are continuing to ease since the Omicron peak in mid-January with 1906 patients in hospital, 132 of which are in intensive care.
Mr Hazzard said “revised guidelines” are in the works around hospital visitations after devastated NSW residents who were unable to say goodbye to dying family members came forward earlier in the week.
A heartbroken Gayle Roberts was visiting her mother Shirley Foster’s palliative care room at Campbelltown Hospital in Sydney’s southwest on January 30 when she was told to leave because visiting hours had ended.
Despite begging for more time with her mother as she was close to death, a nurse threatened to call security and have her escorted out of the complex if Ms Roberts refused to leave.
The triple-vaccinated woman arrived the next morning to see her mother, but was forced to wait five hours in her car while nurses renewed her visitor’s exemption due to Covid-19 restrictions.
By the time she was allowed in, her mother had died.
Mr Hazzard has since called Ms Roberts and personally apologised, and has now said he was working with NSW Health to develop the new set of guidelines.
“Hopefully they strike the balance between keeping the patients safe and making sure that there’s compassion and care,” Mr Hazzard told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“I will give you … and all the people I’ve spoken to privately, as I always have, the absolute commitment, that care and compassion should be at the centre of everything we do and I will constantly keep that message there.”
Wednesday’s numbers include 5961 positive results from rapid antigen tests and 4351 from PCR tests.
More than 95 per cent of the NSW population over the age of 16 have had one Covid-19 vaccination, while 94.1 per cent have had two.
Of the population, 43.6 per cent have had three doses of a vaccine.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has said additional vaccine doxjmtzywses may be recommended in the future of the “ongoing journey” of the pandemic.
“I want to also convey to the community that we will have an ongoing journey with COVID as we transition,” Dr Chant said on Tuesday.
“We may be recommending, in future months, additional vaccines based on that ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) guidance.
“So rather than seeing it all as (a plan to) just to get to here, it is going to be a fact that we will have to continue to adopt and calibrate to the new challenges in our learning.
“But the vaccines work. They are so incredibly effective… so please go out and get your boosters.”
Premier Dominic Perrottet on Monday hinted that restrictions could be lifted at the end of the month, saying the state was “on track” to lift mask and working-from-home restrictions come February 28.
“We rolled those restrictions over but if I look across the state right now we’re in a very strong position,” he told media on Monday.
“I’m confident with where we sit.”
