A senior, well-trained, medical professional has won an appeal against being demoted after having used excessive force against a mental health patient.
Central Queenslanders have turned out en-masse to get COVID tests after the region was jolted into action by a virus scare on Monday.
A visit with family between March 25 and 28, from a former Gladstone man who now lives in Brisbane, sparked community concern.
The man, who was unknowingly positive with the virus after contracting it from a workmate, was only advised of his possible status when called by his boss on Saturday, March 27.
He immediately masked up and went and got tested at Gladstone Hospital.
A Queensland Health Service spokeswoman said Central Queenslanders should be congratulated for adhering to public health directions.
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Subscriber only Vaccinations against COVID-19 have commenced in Gladstone with the first jab administered at 9am on Wednesday to a frontline health worker. The vaccination signalled the start of the rollout of phase 1a of the immunisation program, which sees the Queensland Government program inoculating frontline health care and quarantine workers. The Federal Government has implemented phase 1a of the vaccination program for aged care residents. A total of 39,760 aged care residents across 437 residential and disability facilities had been vaccinated in the Commonwealth program on Monday, with more to be immunised this week. Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Steve Williamson said at the Rockhampton rollout last week the service anticipated vaccinating 160,000 Central Queenslanders, aged 18 or older, with both doses by the end of October.
“It was very small, like a mozzie bite.”
Those were the words of Gladstone and Banana Shire Director of Medical Services Dr Dilip Kumar after receiving the port city’s first AstraZeneca COVID vaccination on Wednesday morning.
Despite calls to pause the AstraZeneca rollout due to a few people experiencing blood clots, the emergency physician said he had complete confidence the vaccine was safe.
“It is very safe, the benefit far outweighs the risk from the vaccine and the risk is very minimal,” he said.
Dr Kumar said the Therapeutic Goods Administration used world leading clinical testing methods and everyone should be confident of the AstraZeneca vaccine’s efficacy.