Document is current

Article History

Received: 15 September 2022

Accepted: 26 December 2022

First Online: 17 January 2023

Declarations

:

: The study was undertaken to inform the New South Wales COVID-19 pandemic response as part of a broader program of public health surveillance carried out under the NSW Public Health Act (2010). The study used a secondary, deidentified dataset derived from routinely collected patient administration data from NSW hospitals and the NSW Notifiable Conditions Information Management System (NCIMS). Permission to access the raw data was provided by NSW Ministry of Health, with all records deidentified and securely managed to ensure patient privacy and to ensure the study’s compliance with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Ethical Considerations in Quality Assurance and Evaluation Activities. Analysis of the deidentified secondary dataset was performed under the guidelines and regulations of the dataset owner (NSW Ministry of Health). The NSW Public Health Act (2010) allows for the collection and analysis of public health data to identify and monitor risk factors for diseases and conditions that have a substantial adverse impact on the population and to improve service delivery. Following review, the NSW Ministry of Health determined that this study met that threshold and therefore provided approval for the study to proceed. Given the above, ethics committee approval was not required. Project oversight and approval for publication was provided by the NSW Ministry of Health.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.