Living With A Pandemic

Since March 2020 WA has been in a state of isolation from the rest of the country and world with our state borders sealed off. Now, as government officially opens the state border on March 3, the highly contagious Omicron variant is bringing it down from within and presenting new challenges.

Earbus Foundation enunciated a set of decision-making principles in the early days of COVID and those have been revisited to make sure they are still relevant. They are on our website. We received biosecurity clearance to enter Aboriginal communities; many we attend regularly are still closed to outsiders.

We now face challenges keeping our services running in the face of much wider community infection. This includes Newborn Hearing Screening in WA’s private maternity hospitals under contract to WA Health. Our contingency planning, sees staff wearing PPE, KN95 masks and being based in only one hospital. Regional services will be impacted as infections spread but our priority remains client and staff safety.