Dozens of Queensland nurses rushed to Victoria to bolster emergency response

Dozens of Queensland nurses are being rushed to the frontline of Victoria’s COVID-19 battle after volunteering to join the emergency response underway in the state.

Queensland Health tonight chartered a flight to Melbourne for 27 registered nurses, from areas ranging from the Gold Coast to the state’s central rural regions.

“(They will be) with their colleagues doing pop-up clinics, fever fever clinics… They’ll also be doing the most vulnerable groups, so where people can’t get out to undertake testing,” Shelley Nowlan, Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer from Queensland Health, said.

The nurses will be scattered across Victoria’s coronavirus hotspots for periods of between four weeks and three months, with many other frontline workers expected to be sent south as the outbreak worsens.

“We’re hoping to form a 200-nurse-strong national contingent to help our colleagues,” Ms Nowlan said.