Guidance for healthcare teams to support COVID-19 prevention and management

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created a rapidly changing health policy environment. This page contains recommendations to support healthcare teams in prevention and management of COVID-19 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

These recommendations are being developed in response to specific questions arising from healthcare professionals involved in provision of healthcare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

All recommendations are informed by the best available evidence current at the time of publication and are intended as guidance only. These recommendations should be considered in the local context, taking into account local prevalence and experience of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, and other factors relevant to individual patients, health services and settings.

New recommendations will be added as they are developed. We encourage readers to consider the date of publication and any relevant developments that may have occurred since. As far as possible review of existing recommendations will be conducted as relevant new evidence emerges.

If you have any queries about the recommendations or questions you would like the Expert Committee to consider, please email kate.freeman@racgp.org.au.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its current and potential impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in urban, rural and remote Australia there is an urgent need to provide practical advice for healthcare teams supporting prevention and management of COVID-19 in primary healthcare.

Several groups are collaborating, including NACCHO, RACGP, the Lowitja Institute and the Australian National University to develop recommendations based on the most recent evidence to help answer questions for healthcare workers working in Aboriginal community controlled health services and other primary care. This collaboration is developing a series of rapid evidence summaries to inform the recommendations.