295 new cases and nine new deaths, as number of Victorians in hospital increases
Shocking stories are emerging from Victoria’s deadly aged-care crisis with grief-stricken loved ones revealing their agony and outrage as parents and grandparents die alone without basic care. It comes as the state’s total fatalities overtook the number of deaths combined in the rest of Australia.
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The grieving son of a woman who died of coronavirus was told his mother’s body was left “deteriorating” in her room because the Epping Gardens Aged Care home had no refrigeration facility.
Tom Hyatt said he couldn’t believe the blunt way the news of his mother Thelma Hyatt’s death was delivered.
His 89-year-old mum was a resident at the home and died at 9.30am on Tuesday.
Mr Hyatt said he found out from a doctor, who called him at 9.45am.
But at about 8.20pm on Tuesday — 11 hours after her death — an Epping Gardens staff member contacted him and said: “When are you going to move the body? You need to move her because she’s in a body bag and we don’t have a fridge facility and she’s deteriorating while we speak.”.
Mr Hyatt said he was in shock and his initial reaction was to ask whether he could arrange it for the following morning.
But he said the staff member pressed him and said: “We really need her out of here”.
He then made a series of calls to funeral homes and eventually arranged someone, but by the time he rang back on Tuesday night no one answered his calls.
He said he tried ringing about 40 times and was getting increasingly worried.
Adding to the stress, the funeral director wasn’t able to get in to collect her body until 12pm Wednesday — more than a day after her death.
“She was in her body bag laying on her bed for more than 26 hours. I don’t know how it happened, it’s absolutely blown me away.”
He said he was staggered by the tone the staff member had taken in handling the matter.
“You could show a bit of heart you know? But it was this whole sour thing.
“The staff member just kept saying ‘her body’s deteriorating’. Do you really need to keep telling me that? It’s just shock horror. I couldn’t comprehend the tone of what they were saying, it came across as a demand that I needed to be there. Then they wouldn’t answer their phone.”
Mr Hyatt said he hoped no other families had to go through the treatment he had been through.
It comes as body of a resident who died inside the troubled aged care centre was wheeled from the facility wrapped in what appeared to be a rug.
Medical staff in protective gear loaded the body from a stretcher into a waiting van on Wednesday.
It was one of at least two bodies taken from the facility throughout the day.
The deaths give insight into the dire COVID-19 crisis which has overrun the nursing home, so far claiming the lives of about half a dozen residents and infecting 86 people.
Great-grandmother Carmela Agnello died at the Northern Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
The 92-year-old “family woman” was strong of mind up until she contracted coronavirus at the Epping facility last week.
Ms Agnello lived for her two children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
But she was alone and confused when she took her final breath.
Anna Mattia said she is angry at how her beloved grandmother was “robbed” from her family.
“We go through stages where we are really angry and sometimes we want to just push it all aside and remember her and forget what has happened,” Ms Mattia said.
The Italian-heritage family said their final goodbyes via a video call on Sunday.
“We told her we loved her because we didn’t know if it would be the last time,” Ms Mattia said.
“She asked what was wrong with her and didn’t understand what was happening.
“She went to sleep on Monday and never woke up. She was on morphine and her organs were shutting down.
“She was still very strong in her mind and could have lived longer.”
On Tuesday a large number of sick residents were evacuated from the centre to private hospitals to give them a better chance at survival.
An independent adviser was also installed by the federal government to oversee its management of the health crisis amid a slew of allegations against staff.
Concetta Mineo, 89, was found face down and crying in the bathroom after a fall while locked in her room on Tuesday.
The great-grandmother was transferred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for brain and heart scans and tested negative to the virus.
Her family said she has been neglected at the aged care home and that it was a “blessing” for her to be sent to hospital.
Photos taken by Ms Mineo’s family show her with a severely bruised face after a fall last Monday.
Her daughter Nella criticised the lack of care at the facility including leaving Ms Mineo stranded on the toilet and without her protective hip guards and working hearing aids.
Last week her terrified family resorted to calling all the major hospitals in search of Ms Mineo because Epping Gardens Aged Care did not take their calls.
“We were beside ourselves,” Nella said.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission wrote to the families of residents on Tuesday evening saying it was evident the nursing home was “struggling to ensure quality and safety of care”.
An independent adviser was installed to oversee the welfare of residents and the centre was ordered to report daily to the commission and comply with all advice and directions issued by
Victorian health authorities.
NINE NEW VIRUS DEATHS
Victoria has recorded nine deaths and 295 new positive coronavirus cases.
There has also been a jump in hospitalisations with 307 people now receiving treatment, although the number in intensive care remains steady at 41.
The deaths overnight mean Victoria now reaches a grim milestone, with 92 lives lost to coronavirus — more than the rest of Australia combined on 84.
Seven of the deaths are linked to aged care facilities.
Two of the deaths are in people in their 90s, five in their 80s, one in their 70s and one in their 60s.
There are currently 4839 active cases in Victoria, of which 1418 were contracted through community transmission.
There are 804 active cases linked to aged care facilities, and 502 in health workers.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the testing rate remained higher than one in five Victorians.
He cautioned Victorians to consider the daily figures in context.
“I’m not reading into numbers each day too much,” he said.
“I don’t think that is necessarily the right thing to do.
“Obviously it’s always pleasing when there are less numbers than more but at the same time, trends are not made in one day.
“We need to see these numbers over a longer period.
“As to where we will be in another three weeks, none of us can tell.”
He said employers were now required to notify WorkSafe immediately if an employee tested positive.
Mr Andrews urged Victorians not to go to work if they were sick.
“This is largely a second wave fuelled by a second outbreak in workplaces,” he said.
Mr Andrews defended criticisms that he took too long to cancel category one elective surgery.
“Short of taking people off operating tables it could be done no faster,” he said.
Mr Andrews said discussions had been taking place since Sunday.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION REMAINS STABLE
The state's chief health officer said while aged care outbreaks were driving high daily case numbers, the level of community transmission remained relatively stable.
Professor Brett Sutton said 55 of today’s new cases were the result of community transmission.
“The real contribution in today’s numbers, as for the last week or two, have been outbreak-driven,” he said.
“And so the aged care numbers, the increase in each of those facilities on a daily basis, will be a significant contributor, including the staff in those facilities, and our other outbreaks, especially the larger ones, are another significant contributor.
“So if you take out the outbreak numbers, I think we are actually looking at relatively few community cases.
“It hasn’t gone down as much as I would have liked.”
Prof Sutton said there were about 50 new community transmission cases daily.
“Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were at a point a month or so ago where we had single figures for community transmission,” he said.
VIRUS HOTSPOTS MOVE TO THE WEST
Prof Sutton said hot spots in the northwest corridor of the city remained active, but new areas had high incidences of the virus.
“It has moved a bit west and there are different areas that come up with greater activity, especially in the western suburbs of Melbourne over time,” he said.
SO HAVE WE PASSED THE PEAK?
Prof Sutton said while the numbers looked to be on the way down, he wasn’t prepared to declare the worst had passed.
“I will not make a declaration that we have passed the peak,” he said.
“There is both the modelling that we need to help make informed decisions about what additional interventions might be required, or whether we carry on with the settings, the policy settings that we have, but there is the real numbers every day that we have to watch as well.
“You cannot make assumptions on modelling. It doesn’t predict the future.
“There are important insights that you can gain from the modelling, the kind of range it tells you, about where you are headed, but you cannot say we have passed a peak.
“There is nothing else to consider here. We have to watch the numbers every day.
“The ability for outbreaks to occur and numbers to increase is very substantial.”
Prof Sutton said there was still the possibility of more outbreaks in the aged care sector which would cause a significant spike in the state’s numbers.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said Victoria now has about 800 ICU beds, or more than double the capacity than at the start of the pandemic.
“Every effort we are making at the moment is to bring numbers down,” she said.
CASES BY THE NUMBERS
There are currently 309 cases linked to public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington, while 64 are linked to public housing blocks in Carlton.
Outbreaks at aged care facilities currently stand at:
– 91 cases at Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer;
– 89 cases at St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner;
– 86 cases at Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping;
– 79 cases at Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth;
– 62 cases at Menarock Life Aged Care Facility in Essendon;
– 56 cases at Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg;
– 54 cases at Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee;
– 51 cases at BaptCare Wyndham Lodge in Weribee;
– 44 cases at Outlook Gardens Aged Care Facility in Dandenong North;
– 41 cases at Arcare Aged Care Facility in Craigieburn.
Single case have been identified in staff members at:
– Kalyna Aged Care in Delahey;
– Doutta Galla Lynch’s Bridge in Kensington;
and Estia Health Aged Care in Glen Waverley.
Two cases have also been identified at Mecwacare John Atchison Centre in Hoppers Crossing.
Other outbreaks currently stand at:
– 100 cases at Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham;
– 100 cases at Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown;
– 78 cases at JBS in Brooklyn;
– 51 cases at Australian Lamb Company in Colac;
– 29 cases at Woolworths Distribution Centre Mulgrave;
– 27 cases at LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields;
– 24 cases at Clever Kids in Ashburton;
– 19 cases at Respite Services Australia in Moonee Ponds;
– 14 cases at the Linfox Warehouse in Truganina;
– 10 cases at Don KR Castlemaine;
– Nine at Blackwoods Scoresby.
EVERY POSITIVE CASE TO RECEIVE A KNOCK ON THE DOOR
The Premier said the ADF would be deployed to doorknock every positive coronavirus case.
He noted that so far 29 individuals had not been at home when doorknocked.
“They have been referred to Victoria Police,” Mr Andrews said.
“Australian Defence Force personnel have now visited around 500 homes, that is for people who for one reason or another could not be contacted.
“Interviews have been conducted on a doorstep … there have been 18 teams that have been out every day, about 58 staff who have been out doorknocking.
“From today, we will increase that to around 90 staff and each and every positive case will be door knocked, will be visited by the ADF and DHHS team.
“That is not about compliance, but making sure that every single positive case understands what we are asking them to do.
“And it is their opportunity to ask what they need from us, what can we do for you to support you in unique circumstances.”
AGED CARE RESIDENTS TRANSFERRED
Mr Andrews said a number of aged care residents had been removed from their facilities.
“If it’s an emergency transfer, those residents will go to a public hospital,” he said.
“If it’s a planned transfer where there can be some lead-in time, they will go to the private sector.”
The number of residents moved from each aged care facility is:
– 80 from St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner;
– 34 from Epping Gardens;
– 30 from Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth;
– 21 from Outlook Gardens in Dandenong North.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION CAUSED THE SECOND WAVE: PM
Mass community transmission of COVID-19 across Melbourne caused the deadly outbreaks in aged care facilities, according to Scott Morrison.
“When it rains, everyone gets wet,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Morrison said he wanted to be as upfront as possible about the “deeply concerning” situation.
He said staff had transferred the virus into facilities, largely “unaware” they were carrying it.
“This is the product of community transmission,” he said.
“We have seen some very distressing and concerning situations arise in a number of those facilities.
“We will not ever be complacent about it.”
Mr Morrison said he hoped the Aged Care Royal Commission would look at the situation in facilities throughout the pandemic.
Mr Morrison said Australia was experiencing a “Victorian wave”, not a second wave.
He said the economic impact of the Victorian situation was being felt around the country.
Victorians should brace for more deaths from aged care facilities “every day”, said Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy.
“There will be more (deaths),” Prof Murphy said.
There are now cases in about 10 per cent of aged care facilities across the state.
– Tamsin Rose
TWO WOMEN TEST POSITIVE IN QUEENSLAND AFTER MELBOURNE TRIP
Police are investigating how two travellers who have tested positive for COVID-19 returned to Queensland from Melbourne.
The two young women are under criminal investigation after providing, what authorities believe were, incorrect details on border declaration passes.
The two 19-year-old females, one from Acacia Ridge one from Logan in Brisbane’s southern suburbs travelled to Melbourne together and had somehow evaded mandated hotel quarantine upon returning to Queensland.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the circumstances of the young women’s re-entry into Queensland from Melbourne was under criminal investigation.
“Initial investigations indicate there were incorrect details on border declaration passes,” Mr Gollschewski said.
Read the full story here.
SPECIALIST MEDICS HEAD TO VICTORIA
Defence force tents have been set up outside the troubled Epping Gardens Aged Care centre.
Australian Defence Force medics were escorted from the building at 8am on Wednesday after finishing their shift.
Security guards will be posted outside the nursing home after threatening outbursts by family toward staff on Tuesday.
It came as infected residents were evacuated from the centre to private hospitals.
A specialist medical team built to handle humanitarian disasters is being sent to Victoria to try to stem the deadly spread of COVID-19 in more than 80 aged-care homes.
Nurses from Victorian hospitals, as well as from NSW and South Australia, are also joining the fight with hundreds of aged-care workers now coronavirus patients or close contacts.
Premier Daniel Andrews moved on Tuesday to suspend several types of elective surgery, freeing up hospital beds for aged-care residents caught up in outbreaks.
It followed days of negotiations with the federal government amid fears of staff shortages and warnings from providers about hospitals refusing to accept transfers of residents.
Unwell residents were evacuated from the virus-ridden Epping Gardens home on Tuesday, as distressed and angry relatives demanded answers from staff.
About 170 residents from several homes have already been moved to hospitals, and dozens more are expected to be moved imminently.
Four of the six Victorian deaths announced on Tuesday were linked to aged care, taking the death toll among nursing homes residents to 39.
With 769 active cases linked to aged-care homes, the federal government also provided an extra five million masks and 500,000 face shields for workers. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the AUSMAT team being sent to Victoria was the “SAS of the medical world”.
“They are the best of the best,” he said.
As the crisis escalated, Mr Andrews said on Tuesday he did not have confidence some aged-care providers were “able to provide the care that is appropriate to keep their residents safe”.
“We don’t run this sector, but the residents in these homes are all Victorians,” Mr Andrews said.
“My mother is in her mid-70s, with underlying health issues but she lives at home. Some of the stories we’ve seen are unacceptable and I wouldn’t want my mum in some of those places.”
A visibly emotional Mr Hunt, whose late father lived in a home, hit back, saying he would “not hear a word against” aged care staff.
“My father lived in one, yes. It’s a difficult decision for any family and it’s a difficult time. My father lived in one and we knew that that meant he was in the latest stages of his life,” Mr Hunt said on Tuesday.
“I cannot imagine better care that my family and my father could have got and I speak, I think, for hundreds of thousands of families around the country.”
“And the idea that our carers, that our nurses are not providing that care, I think, is a dangerous statement to make.”
Some federal government figures were frustrated by the state government’s delay in agreeing to suspend elective surgery and transfer residents from virus-affected homes.
Mr Hunt said it was “not acceptable” that aged-care provider Bupa had faced “extreme difficulty getting patients into public hospitals”.
“Where there are patients that need that support, they must be given it,” he said.
“There can be no excuses. The beds are available. The workforce is available.”
Bupa Aged Care clinical services director Maryann Curry said the company’s experience in Britain and Spain proved residents needed to be moved as soon as they were diagnosed.
“If the passage to hospital is not clear, we lose precious hours as this disease moves so quickly,” she said. “It is our view that keeping COVID-positive aged-care residents within the home will almost certainly result in them suffering more than is necessary.”
Leading Age Services Australia’s policy general manager Tim Hicks said Mr Andrews’ comment was “disappointing and hurtful” for providers and staff.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Victoria was facing a “very complex” issue.
“The standing down, necessarily, of many in that workforce has had a very significant disruption to the provision of care in those facilities,” he said. “The commonwealth has been working, including with other states, to ensure that we can plug those gaps wherever we possibly can.”
The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, established at the weekend, is now co-ordinating efforts to transfer patients and bring in staff.
Mr Morrison said communication breakdowns with the families of residents were “terribly heartbreaking”.
“There is disruption and we would ask for patience,” he said. “But I understand that that patience is very hard to come by when you’re talking about a loved one who has been affected by COVID-19.” he said.
- Shannon Deery
NORTHLAND MYER CLOSES AFTER COVID CASE
A worker in Myer’s menswear department at shopping mecca Northland has tested positive for coronavirus.
The worker tested positive after contracting the deadly virus from a family member and they last worked in the store from July 20-22 when they were potentially infectious.
As soon as Myer was made aware of the positive test they notified the DHHS and team members, with some now in isolation.
The store and department has undergone a deep clean and sanitisation and will be open today.
A Myer spokesman said their thoughts are with the team member and they wish them a speedy recovery.
“We can advise that a Myer team member at our Northland store has returned a positive result for COVID-19 following contact with a positive family member,” he said.
Read the full story here.
AGED CARE RESIDENTS NEGLECTED IN HORROR HOMES
Diabolic failings have been exposed in Melbourne’s coronavirus-plagued aged-care homes, with 84 separate outbreaks and more than 900 cases now linked to the sector.
The Herald Sun has been told some residents have been left sitting in their own faeces, malnourished and not cleaned for days.
As tensions mounted between state and federal governments on Tuesday, interventions at private facilities exposed a raft of damning allegations, including:
Faeces found in beds and patients left unfed for days at St Basil’s in Fawkner;
Staff at Epping Gardens Aged Care being forced to call triple-0 because there were only four of them on duty; and
Defence force personnel raising serious concerns for their safety after being deployed to help at Epping Gardens.
Some care-home residents also sat unwashed for days.
The Herald Sun has been told that at Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth, management was unable to provide vital details of staff and residents’ close contacts.
At a Dandenong care home, which has three residents in critical condition, a physiotherapist who worked with patients on every floor of the facility tested positive. There were last night 769 active cases and 39 deaths linked to aged-care homes.
The daughter of a resident at Epping Gardens said her mother had twice not been washed for stretches of four days, before being transferred to hospital on Tuesday.
Susan, who did not want her surname published, said her 67-year-old mother’s catheter had also not been cleaned for four days, leaving her at risk of infection.
Read the full story here.
ANDREWS NO FAN OF ROYAL COMMISSION BID
Daniel Andrews has brushed off calls for a royal commission into his state government’s widely criticised pandemic response.
The Herald Sun revealed the Australian Medical Association had called for a royal commission.
Asked on Tuesday if he would support that, Mr Andrews dismissed the query.
“I am not focused on those matters,” he said. “They are entitled to their view. I am not focused on those matters.
“We are a long way away from those sorts of issues. I am more focused on doing everything we can to provide care to those that are sick, to have the best set of policies and the best public health response we possibly can have.”
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the call for a royal commission was effectively “a vote of no-confidence in the Andrews government’s ability to handle this pandemic”.
He said while a royal commission would perform an important function, it would take years before a final report could be delivered.
“Victorians need answers now, not in two or three years’ time. When parliament meets next week, we expect the government to give Victorians answers,” he said.
“When ministers appear before (the) public accounts and estimates (committee), we expect the government to give Victorians answers. And when ministers appear before the hotel quarantine inquiry, we expect the government to give Victorians answers.”
A royal commission could be set up by either the state or federal government on the advice of government ministers.
The government would then be responsible for setting terms of reference and appointing commissioners, who would be given sweeping powers to probe matters of substantial public importance.
An inquiry into the state’s hotel quarantine program is already under way, as is a royal commission into Australia’s aged-care sector.
But the AMA believes a royal commission into Victoria’s response to the pandemic is needed because neither of those inquiries go far enough to uncover the wider problems.
The failed hotel quarantine scheme has been widely blamed for causing the state’s second wave.
The Herald Sun can now reveal a security guard was dismissed from the scheme for serious hygiene breaches in the first weeks of the controversial program.
Sources have confirmed the woman was found to have hugged and touched other guards at the Four Points Sheraton hotel. She also failed to maintain social distancing in other instances.
The incidents happened in early April, not long after private security was brought in to manage security at the venues.
The woman was removed for misconduct by the security firm managing the hotel.
She had been engaged for the work by a subcontractor.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday: “The aged-care royal commission is already looking at issues relating to COVID in terms of what occurred in NSW.
“I would expect them to look at what has occurred in Victoria as well.”
TRAVEL DIPS AS CITY HUNKERS DOWN
Melburnians are heeding the message not to leave the home unless for essential reasons, with data showing movement remains limited across the city.
There were 111,000 trips taken on public transport on Sunday, July 26, about 85 per cent lower than usual.
These journeys more than tripled on weekdays as essential workers commuted but the 365,000 trips recorded on Wednesday, July 22 were still less than a fifth of normal passenger numbers.
During the same period, motorists were significantly more likely to hit the road.
There were approximately 3.7 million vehicle trips recorded in Melbourne on Sunday while journeys rose to nearly 6.5 million on the Wednesday prior.
The weekday figure was 35 per cent lower compared to movement levels before coronavirus restriction were introduced.
“We’re seeing patronage down across the network as people in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire do the right thing and stay home,” a government spokeswoman said.
“By limiting the number of people moving around our state we can limit the spread of the virus.”
- Additional reporting by Alex White, Tom Minear and Mark Buttler
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