Hi my name's Alison McMillan, I’m the Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery
Officer and welcome to this Facebook update. Firstly a shout out to everyone. When you look
around the world, we are so fortunate Australia, for the success we've had in suppressing the
spread and we've got such low numbers of COVID-19 positive people now. It really is a testament
to the amazing effort everyone has made, but we have to keep it up. So remember, if you're unwell
and you have symptoms, please stay home and get tested, keep up with that physical distancing. I
know this time of year, it's a bit more tempting to give hugs and things but please don't.
Keep up that hand hygiene, keep up washing your hands, that thing now we all do which is to
cough into our elbow and also sneeze into our elbow. Generally, let's just keep looking after
each other because what you've been doing has been working well and we need to keep doing it.
Question one - what is the latest on the COVID-19 vaccine and when will likely
become available in Australia? There is some really, really
exciting developments we are seeing with the vaccine, but importantly everyone understands
that any vaccine we might use in Australia needs to be proven to be safe. And we need to understand
who it is going to be the most successful in. Australia has really, strong regulations. That
means you can be confident that any vaccine that comes here has gone through rigorous testing. A
number of vaccines are currently in what we call clinical trials. That is, where the third stage,
where they're being tested on large numbers of people across the world to make sure that they're
safe and to test to see how they're effective they are. We will see, hopefully early in the new year,
a beginning of a rollout of this and that will be done once all that rigorous testing has
been complete. And as I said, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the body that
looks after all that for us and will continue to watch across the world where this technology
is developing and all the clever people across the world are looking at this at the moment.
Question two - should people be wearing a mask in all areas even where it is not mandatory?
I think that wearing masks, there is a number of things. We know currently in Victoria that
it is a requirement to wear a mask and while you are outside and when you are moving around,
in a number of places. There are exemptions for special reasons for people who may not be
able to wear them, but Victoria is very much at the moment, require you to wear a mask.
You are required to wear a cloth mask or a surgical mask. But there are some important
things to remember when you are wearing a mask. It does not work when it is dangling off your ear.
It is no good when it is on your forehead. So when you are wearing a mask, you wear it, cover your
nose to your chin. If you remove it, make sure you hygiene your hands first before you take it off,
throw it in the bin or if it is cloth mask, hygiene your hands again and then put it back
on. But do not have it dangling around because that is not doing anybody, even you, any favours.
For other parts of the country outside of Victoria, there are recommendations in places
where you cannot stay physically distance, crowded places, and public transport. If you
feel vulnerable and you feel that would give you additional confidence, then you can wear a mask,
that is fine. But still follow those principles, hygiene your hands before you put it on,
hygiene before you take it off, do not have it dangling around, making you look silly and dispose
of those masks. Particularly the cloth ones, you need to dispose, you need to wash them if they
are damp and you need to wash them regularly. Final question - is there a saliva test for
COVID-19 that people can request if they do not like the idea of a nasal swab?
The nasal swab only takes a couple of seconds and yes I’ve had it and yes it's a little bit
uncomfortable to have that giant cue tip stuck up your nose but that is the gold standard of
testing. In Australia, we want to make sure; we have absolute confidence in our testing because
that has been part of the success of our testing and tracking and isolation strategies. Therefore,
the gold standard is definitely the nasal swab and throat swab. There are other tests available,
including saliva tests. They are going through some trials to see how effective they might
be. And they may be suitable for some groups, where a nasal swap may be too difficult to do,
particularly for instance young children. But right now, we are sticking with a nasal swab. We
will continue to look at these other tests as they develop over time. It may be that in the future we
might use some of those things. Thank you for watching today.