31/01/20

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has provided a high level of comfort in a general letter to hotel & tourism operators on the risks and realities on coronavirus. Those risks relate to ‘close contact with a confirmed case of the virus or has left the Hubei province of China less than 14 days ago. Given that China effectively locked down Hubei province a week ago, most people from there will already have been here a week’.

What the Chief Medical Officer concludes is that ‘practicing good hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against most viruses’.

Please encourage staff to:

Wash their hands with soap and water regularly and after eating and attending the toilet
Avoid physical contact with others
Cough and sneeze into their elbow

Finally, Australia’s health system is very well prepared to manage situations such as this. The hygiene response as mentioned above should be normal practice for all of us regardless of any external or seasonal health tests that are constantly a risk.

We will continue to advise members with any further information as it becomes available.

The PDF filed attached is the official Message issued by the Australian Chief Medical Officer.