NOVEL CORONA VIRUS (COVID-19) UPDATE - 20th MARCH

Friday, 20 March 2020

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) Update

As at 8pm, Thursday, 19 March 2020, an additional 46 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed, since our last update at 11am 19 March, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 353.

Last night an 81 year old woman with COVID-19 passed away, bringing a total of 6 deaths in NSW. This person had close contact with another confirmed case linked to Ryde Hospital.

There has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 at St Columba Anglican School in Port Macquarie in a 14 year old girl. That school is closed today to allow further risk assessment and identification of close contacts.

A new case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in a resident of Dorothy Henderson Lodge. The resident is a 73 year old woman. Further investigations are underway with continued intense infection control practices.

Of the confirmed cases, 6 people are currently in our Intensive Care Units. The majority of cases have mild disease and are in isolation at home.

NSW Health is alerting passengers who were close contacts on the following flights to monitor for symptoms, and contact their GP, but call ahead first, or call healthdirect on 1800 022 222, or visit a NSW Health COVID-19 / Flu assessment clinic should they become unwell.

Flight details of confirmed cases:

• Qantas flight QF434 from Melbourne to Sydney, arriving 13 March 2020. Close contacts were in rows 1-4
• Qantas flight QF12 from Los Angeles to Sydney arriving 15 March 2020. Close contacts were in rows 25-29
• Malaysian Airlines Flight MH0141 from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, arriving 14 March 2020. Close contacts were in rows 1-3
• Emirates Flight EK413, Codeshare QF8765 from Christchurch to Sydney, arriving 16 March 2020. Close contacts were in rows 7-11
• Etihad Airways flight EY450 from Abu Dhabi to Sydney, arriving 16 March 2020. Close contacts were in rows 19-23

A full list of flight details can be found here:

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus-flights.aspx

NSW Health COVID-19 / Flu assessment clinics are up and running across the state however, we stress these clinics are for those most at risk with respiratory symptoms or fever, those returning from overseas or in contact with a COVID-19 case, or people like our health workers. People without symptoms do not need to be tested.

The link for the location of these clinics is available here: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus-clinics.aspx

NSW Health COVID-19 / Flu assessment clinics are up and running across the state however, we stress these clinics are for those most at risk with respiratory symptoms or fever, those returning from overseas or in contact with a COVID-19 case, or people like our health workers. People without symptoms do not need to be tested.

The link for the location of these clinics is available here:

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus-clinics.aspx