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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth of January. My name is Sam Kazlowski. Joining me

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Speaker 1: is co founder Zara Seidler to talk through the day's news.

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Speaker 1: Zara for the deep Dive. Today, we're going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about the evolving situation in Victoria where they have

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Speaker 1: now announced a code brown. We're going to tell you

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Speaker 1: exactly what that means. But first, what's making headlines this morning?

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Speaker 2: Sam. Just as we've seen case numbers drop, we've also

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Speaker 2: seen New South Wales and Queensland both report their highest

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Speaker 2: daily death tolls since the COVID nineteen pandemic began. Yesterday,

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Speaker 2: New South Wales reported thirty six people who had passed

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Speaker 2: away from COVID nineteen, whilst Queensland recorded sixteen deaths.

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Speaker 1: The period for the Australian public to provide feedback on

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Speaker 1: the government's draft National Plan to end Violence against Women

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Speaker 1: and Children has been extended to four weeks. This comes

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Speaker 1: after the government received backlash from domestic violence groups and

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Speaker 1: victims survivors for initially only providing a two week time

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Speaker 1: frame for feedback after it was released last Friday.

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Speaker 2: Two earthquakes in a western Afghanistan have killed more than

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Speaker 2: twenty people and destroyed hundreds and hundreds of homes. According

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Speaker 2: to the US Geological Survey, the first earthquake was a

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Speaker 2: magnitude five point three. Well, the second was a magnitude

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Speaker 2: four point nine and.

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Speaker 1: A little bit of hump day good news for you.

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Speaker 1: The Waterng Traditional Owner's Aboriginal Corporation will plant five thousand

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Speaker 1: native trees on Waterrang Country in Melbourne's West. This was

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Speaker 1: announced yesterday by the Victorian government. Victoria's Minister for Energy,

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Speaker 1: Environment and Climate Change, Lily down Brosio, said that these

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Speaker 1: trees will provide more green space for residents to enjoy

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Speaker 1: and increase connections with nature and improve mental and physical

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Speaker 1: health ZAM.

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Speaker 2: Yesterday, the Victorian government announced it had called a Code

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Speaker 2: Brown for the state's hospital system due to the extreme

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Speaker 2: pressure it is facing amid the pandemic. It's going to

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Speaker 2: be implemented across all metropolitan and major regional hospitals and

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Speaker 2: will be activated from midday today. So what is code

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Speaker 2: brown today?

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Speaker 3: We're making a significant announcement about our Code brown activation

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Speaker 3: across our health services. We've been saying now for some

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Speaker 3: time that our hospital system is under extreme pressure and

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Speaker 3: the risks we're now seeing in COVID hospitalizations are testament

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Speaker 3: to that. So we've reached a point in our health

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Speaker 3: system where it's struggling severe workforce shortages. We've got more

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Speaker 3: than four thousand healthcare workers unavailable right now, so.

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Speaker 1: Zara to get to the nuts and bolts of what

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Speaker 1: exactly a code Brown means. We could expect to see

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Speaker 1: the following types of changes. We could expect to see

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Speaker 1: consultation with staff about leave arrangements, so to read between

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Speaker 1: the lines, their staff could be asked not to go

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Speaker 1: on leave for the next of the while some healthcare

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Speaker 1: workers might be required to work in different parts of

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Speaker 1: the hospital. For example, an elective surgery nurse could be

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Speaker 1: redeployed to an emergency department. We also are expecting to

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Speaker 1: see rapid offloading of ambulance patients at emergency departments to

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Speaker 1: get those paramedics back on the road as soon as possible,

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Speaker 1: and changing services to free up more staff. This might

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Speaker 1: look like the delivery of outpatient services outside of the hospital.

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Speaker 2: Yesterday, we put up a post about this Code Brown

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Speaker 2: and received a message from someone who's on the ground

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Speaker 2: in a hospital in Victoria who said that as a doctor,

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Speaker 2: they were really really worried about what the implications of

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Speaker 2: a Code Brown were. They said things like staff having

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Speaker 2: their annual leave canceled and being forced back to work

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Speaker 2: despite not having had a break for over twelve months

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Speaker 2: in some cases, and that doctors are no longer getting

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Speaker 2: necessary skills training as they're being pulled to care for

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Speaker 2: COVID patients. Alternatively, this doctor also outlined that the redeployment

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Speaker 2: means that some patients will be treated by staff who

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Speaker 2: may have had limited training in that field. And this

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Speaker 2: person just basically laid out to us their concerns and

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Speaker 2: their anxieties around this Code Brown. SAM. What's the hospitalization

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Speaker 2: data looking like in Victoria at the moment?

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Speaker 1: So we heard from Acting Premier James Molino yesterday who

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Speaker 1: said the peak in hospitalizations will likely be in the

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Speaker 1: next two to four weeks for the state. They're expecting

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Speaker 1: that they could see over twenty five hundred hospitalizations over

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Speaker 1: the next few weeks. Keeping in mind there's currently just

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Speaker 1: over one thousand people in Victorian hospitals with COVID and

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Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty seven people in ICU. This is

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Speaker 1: quite a sharp increase. The Victorian government says that this

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Speaker 1: Code Brown state is expected to last four to six weeks.

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Speaker 1: Here's a little bit more of what the Acting Premier

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Speaker 1: had to say.

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Speaker 3: So what does it look like. It will look like

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Speaker 3: things such as redappointing staff to work in areas of

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Speaker 3: highest clinical authority. It means prioritizing the offload of ambulance

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Speaker 3: patients at EDS to get paramedics back on the road

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Speaker 3: as soon as possible. It means things like changing services

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Speaker 3: to free upstaff, including the delivery of our patients services

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Speaker 3: outside of the hospital. For healthcare workers, this means they

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Speaker 3: might be performing different roles than usual, They might be

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Speaker 3: working in different parts of the hospital.

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Speaker 1: We didn't only hear from Victorian officials in regards to hospitalizations.

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Speaker 2: On the same day that James Melino announced that there

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Speaker 2: was this Code bround that the Victorian health system was

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Speaker 2: going to move into, the federal government also came out

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Speaker 2: with an announcement of their own. So yesterday Federal Health

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Speaker 2: min It's a great Hunt announced the Private Hospitals Agreement

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Speaker 2: has been triggered. The agreement is something that was created

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Speaker 2: back in April twenty twenty and sees up to fifty

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Speaker 2: seven thousand nurses and more than one hundred thousand staff

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Speaker 2: across Australia becoming available from private hospitals to help affected

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Speaker 2: areas around the country. So this was something that was

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Speaker 2: devised at the beginning of the pandemic in preparation for

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Speaker 2: an event like this. In this instance, obviously Victoria will

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Speaker 2: be one of the areas that will receive some of

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Speaker 2: those staff members. Greg Hunt said that the States and

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Speaker 2: territories will where necessary, work directly with the staff and

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Speaker 2: with the hospitals themselves, and it'll be up to the

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Speaker 2: States and territories to activate those Paul Kelly, who's our

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Speaker 2: chief medical officer, said this is the first time the

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Speaker 2: health system has come under pressure to the extent that

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Speaker 2: we're seeing in the last week or two. And that's

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Speaker 2: an important note because Code Brown has been activated before

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Speaker 2: in Victoria, but it's unprecedented for it to be announced

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Speaker 2: for the length of time that is expected, which is

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Speaker 2: some two to four weeks.

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Speaker 1: Amid all of this discussion of changing codes and government

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Speaker 1: policies and kind of the higher level aspects of our

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Speaker 1: health system, it's really important to remember the humans on

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Speaker 1: the front line, and we published a number of their

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Speaker 1: testimonies and experiences a number of weeks ago, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to continue to try and hear from as many

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Speaker 1: first person perspectives as possible, not only on the ground

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Speaker 1: in Victoria, but across the whole country. There are so

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Speaker 1: many incredible frontline workers working day and night to support

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Speaker 1: our community and we can't thank them enough. That is

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Speaker 1: all I've got time for today on the dally Oz.

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Speaker 1: If you want to catch up with the news throughout

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Speaker 1: the day, see us on Instagram at the dally Os.

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Speaker 1: It's where over three hundred and ten thousand Australians get

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Speaker 1: their news throughout the day and we'd love to see

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Speaker 1: you there