GPs who are masked and vaccinated won’t have to go into isolation should their patients test positive to COVID-19 under new national exposure guidelines. 

The updated advice, which will have to be formally adopted by individual states and territories, breaks down exposure risk into four tiers, with health workers in low-risk scenarios only required to test if symptomatic (see box below). 

Otherwise, they can work as normal provided they wear a surgical mask at all times unless eating or drinking.

It will mean the mandatory 14-day isolation — currently required for close contacts — is gone even for the highest-risk scenarios.