Clinical guidance and resources - COVID-19

• 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)

Please refer to advice on the Aged care sector coronavirus (COVID-19) page.

• Clinical practice guideline: Victorian pathways for COVID-19 positive children
• Clinical practice guideline: coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Clinical practice guideline: coronavirus (COVID-19) swabbing
• Clinical practice guideline: Distraction techniques for COVID-19 swabbing
• Clinical practice guideline: Resuscitation - Hospital management of cardiopulmonary arrest coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Alert: Paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome
• Community resources for families
• Managing illness in schools and early childhood education and care services

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance physical distancing in health services - November 2020 (Word)

• Maternal and child health COVID-10 guidance - post pandemic declaration

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.

• 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)

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.