EXCLUSIVE Five healthcare workers at Royal Children's Hospital test positive to COVID-19 in outbreak that may be linked to sushi outlet at the hospital's food court
Seven other staff members who work in non-clinical roles and are close contacts of the workers who tested positive are self-isolating at home for 14 days.The positive diagnoses come as a sushi outlet in the hospital's food court was forced to close when a worker was found to be infected.
The number of infections does not include staff working at the food court outlet, which the Parkville hospital is treating as separate because it is run by a private contractor.It is unclear if there is a link between the restaurant and the infected hospital staff. When asked about the coronavirus case at the sushi outlet, a hospital spokeswoman said: "We can confirm the restaurant was closed last Friday by the franchisee after a ‘back of house’ worker tested positive to COVID-19".
"The RCH has received no advice [of] any risk to patrons, however, [we] took the measure of advising all staff as soon as we became aware [of the positive diagnoses] and also placing advisory notices [in the hospital]," the spokeswoman said.The hospital would not confirm the roles of the infected healthcare workers but the spokeswoman said they did not work in the same team and were employed across clinical and non-clinical roles.
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