Monkami and it's teams are deeply committed to ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of the people we support, our staff, and all visitors and contractors who visit the various Monkami sites, are protected and safe. Monkami is constantly monitoring and reviewing information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic from the Victorian Government, Victorian Health Authorities, the Australian Government, the NDIA, DFFH and international health advice.
From commencement of the pandemic, we established our Pandemic Operational Unit to advise, develop and implement strategies within it's COVID-19 Outbreak Management Plan. We have developed, implemented and maintained high standards of infection prevention and control strategies which align with our regulatory obligations for occupational health and safety. All of our sites have cemented robust systems to protect our participants, residents, staff and visitors. Staff are engaged in ongoing training and participating in scenarios to ensure that our policies and procedures are well engrained in daily life at Monkami, to mitigate the known associated risks of Covid-19 transmission.
Monkami encourages and assists our residents and participants to practice hand hygiene, cough etiquette and face mask wearing when required, to ensure that we can support our residents and participants within the community, to protect themselves, their family and friends and the wider community. Environmental cleaning schedules and checklists remain in place to ensure regimented cleaning of each site is completed twice daily in conjunction with routine surface cleaning.
The implementation of physical distancing, adherence to room square meterage and room capacity signage around each of the Monkami sites, remains in place. In early June, Monkami installed air purifiers across the Dixon Ave site which further enhances the suite of protections for our people. Monkami ensures that the levels of Covid-19 safety measures, environmental cleaning and social distancing at partnership locations for external programs meet our standards to protect our people. In circumstances where a positive case has been identified or notified, personal protective equipment is utilised to protect participants and staff. People who have tested positive through rapid antigen testing cannot attend CBS services for 7 days. Where a close contact of a positive case is confirmed, 5 days of rapid antigen testing is required. Where people present with known symptoms of COVID-19 nor are unwell for any reason, regardless of negative rapid antigen testing, they are not permitted to attend until those symptoms have resolved. Contact tracing procedures, inclusive of temperature checking, with our Covid Comply app remain in place across all sites to enhance efficiencies to the processes. Surveillance Covid-19 rapid antigen testing takes place twice weekly for our staff to mitigate the risks and to restrict the timeframe of potential outbreaks. Monkami staff are proud to be 100% double Covid-19 vaccinated + boosters. If you have any queries or concerns regarding our processes, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are here to help and to support all our people as we continue to navigate the changing conditions presented by COVID-19 together. Take care and stay safe.