Students can continue to attend facilities for training placements, but formal teaching sessions will be unlikely once COVID cases rise. Students may be deployed to support the response in appropriate ways; however, they must be vaccinated, PPE trained and fit tested prior to attending health sites. The Department of Health will advise universities of the student requirements for WA Health public facilities.
Universities should keep a record of their student’s PPE training/PPE fit testing requirements to ensure their students are up to date.
Volunteers will continue to be welcome at health sites providing they are vaccinated and appropriately trained in PPE, particularly if they are located within clinical environments. Consideration should be given to any COVID-19 risk factors that volunteers may have, such as chronic disease or respiratory illness.
Visitors will be permitted in hospitals, with limits placed on the number of visitors for each patient. The COVID-19 Public Hospital Visitor Guidelines provides recommendations for health care services for all patient visitors to public hospitals. Private hospitals can develop their own visitor policies, in line with existing Directions.
It will be mandatory for all hospital visitors to be vaccinated from 31 January 2022, in line with the Proof of Vaccination Directions.
Further information on visitor numbers will be available from your workplace.