COVID-19 clinical guidance and resources are available for a range of healthcare settings.
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- Pharmacotherapy services: information for prescribers and dispensers of medically assisted treatment for opioid dependence – 11 April 2020 (PDF)
- Checklist for assessing appropriateness of take-away doses to support continuity of pharmacotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic – 11 April 2020 (PDF)
- Guidance for supplying methadone and buprenorphine (+/- naloxone) dose(s) to a third party in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic – 11 April 2020 (PDF)
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Please refer to advice on the Aged care sector coronavirus (COVID-19) page.
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- Clinical practice guideline: Victorian pathways for COVID-19 positive
- Clinical practice guideline: coronavirus
- Clinical practice guideline: coronavirus (COVID-19)
- Clinical practice guideline:Â Distraction techniques for COVID-19
- Clinical practice guideline: Resuscitation -Â Hospital management of cardiopulmonary arrest coronavirus
- Alert: Paediatric inflammatory multisystem
- Community resources for
- Managing illness in schools and early childhood education and care
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The Medical exemption to COVID-19 vaccination guidance (Word) can be used to assist with patient consultation, education and clinical decision making when assessing a person’s eligibility for a medical exemption to COVID-19 vaccination. As per the instructions within, this form is not intended to be used as evidence of COVID-19 vaccination exemption.
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- Intensive mental health community care guidelines - 22 April 2020 (PDF)
- Framework and guidance for mental health care during COVID-19 - 5 May 2020 (PDF)
- Home Visits and Community Clinics Depot Administration - 26 May 2020 (PDF)
- COVID-19 Guidance for planning mental health workforce responses in recovery and outbreaks (Word)
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Supported Residential Services and shared accommodation – mental health preparedness and outbreak response (Word)
- Mental health COVID-19 surge team guidance (Word)
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Some settings and groups are disproportionately affected by adverse health outcomes. Outbreaks in some groups can have a disproportionate effect on the community, including the provision of essential services, and these are therefore prioritised for public health management.
Higher prevalence groups and settings
A patient is considered higher risk for COVID-19 if, for example, they present with acute respiratory tract infection or they are a resident in an aged care facility where there is an exposure.
Settings with high risk of transmission
Once a confirmed case of COVID-19 occurs in these settings, the risk of rapid transmission is high.
Places where people reside in groups, for example:
- aged care facilities
- military residential settings
- boarding schools
- boarding houses
- homeless shelters
- correctional facilities
- remote industrial sites with accommodation
- Aboriginal rural and remote communities
- high-density residential buildings.
Workplace settings where large-scale amplification is more likely, for example:
- schools
- abattoirs
- other low-temperature food processing, storage and supply chain facilities
- hotel quarantine
- healthcare services
- aged care facilities
- workplaces with highly casualised or mobile workforces.
People who are most at risk of severe illness
People in the community who are most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, including:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 50 years and older with one or more chronic medical conditions
- people 65 years and older with chronic medical conditions
- people 70 years and older
- people with compromised immune systems.
The following chronic conditions are of concern in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 50 years and vulnerable workers over 65 years:
- chronic renal failure
- coronary heart disease or congestive cardiac failure
- chronic lung disease (severe asthma for which frequent medical consultations or the use of multiple medications is required, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, suppurative lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic emphysema)
- poorly controlled diabetes
- poorly controlled hypertension.
People with compromised immune systems, including those who:
- have haematological neoplasms: leukemias, lymphomas, myelodysplastic syndromes
- are post-transplant: solid organ (on immunosuppressive therapy), haematopoietic stem cell transplant (within 24 months or on treatment for graft versus host disease)
- are immunocompromised due to primary or acquired immunodeficiency (including HIV infection)
- are currently undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy
- receive high-dose corticosteroids (≥20 mg of prednisone per day, or equivalent) for ≥14 days
- receive all biologics and most disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) as defined as follows:
- azathioprine >3.0 mg/kg/day
- 6-mercaptopurine >1.5 mg/kg/day
- methotrexate >0.4 mg/kg/week
- prednisone >20 mg/day
- tacrolimus (any dose)
- cyclosporine (any dose)
- cyclophosphamide (any dose)
- mycophenolate (any dose)
- combination (multiple) DMARDs irrespective of dose.
Critical workforces and other priority settings and groups
COVID-19 can have a disproportionate effect in critical workforces in essential services, such as:
- emergency response
- law and order
- child protection workers and other social services
- food supply chain
- energy and water.
Other priority settings include:
- childcare centres
- disability day centres
- aged care day centres
- communities with a high proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse people
- people experiencing homelessness or housing instability
- remote communities.
Reviewed 15 September 2023