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Today Show host Karl Stefanovic called Queensland's situation 'absolutely desperate' after 400 healthcare workers were forced into self-isolation and a top surgeon needed special exemption to perform heart surgery on a newborn baby.
'The situation in Brisbane is absolutely desperate,' Stefanovic said.
'Four hundred healthcare workers in isolation... 400.
'Operations cancelled and a healthcare worker having to leave quarantine to save the life of a sick child.'
Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young confirmed during Tuesday's Covid update that some hospital surgery and outpatient care in Brisbane had been delayed because of the number of health workers self-isolating due to the state's latest outbreak.
She also revealed she had given permission for a top cardiac surgeon who had been forced into quarantine to be released to perform heart surgery on a newborn baby.
'All of our cardiac surgeons for the children's hospital were in quarantine,' she said.
'We worked through how we could allow one of them to operate on an urgent case,' she said.
'We will do that every single time. No Queenslander will be denied any care because the health workers they need are in quarantine.'
Today Show host Karl Stefanovic described Queensland's situation 'absolutely desperate' as it was revealed 400 Queensland healthcare workers were forced into self-isolation as a result of the state's latest Covid outbreak
