More than 20 breast screening clinics in Sydney, Australia, have been temporarily closed and staff reassigned by local health districts to deal with COVID-19, according to a report published on 9 August in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The country's Cancer Institute New South Wales operates its breast cancer screening program, BreastScreen New South Wales. The move to temporarily close the clinics was "due to the redeployment of staff to other areas of the pandemic response and 'significant cancellations' " the institute said in the Herald report.
Breast cancer screening services were postponed in New South Wales and Victoria during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, causing a 30% drop in mammograms between January and June, the newspaper reported.
