Coronavirus Australia: 100 staff isolated as fatal Alfred hospital cluster probed

Investigations continue into virus cluster that’s claimed three lives at Melbourne hospital.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton has said how a situation like ‘does illustrate the fact that when you are looking after very vulnerable patients in hospital, in settings like this, you have to be absolutely strict with everything’. Picture: AAP

The Melbourne hospital at the centre of a coronavirus cluster that has so far claimed three lives has ordered 100 staff members to go into isolation, while the origin of the outbreak remains unknown.

Investigations continue into how the deadly disease spread through The Alfred hospital’s haematology and oncology ward more than a week after the first ­patients — two men in their 70s — died on, or around, March 25.

A third patient, a woman in her 60s, was confirmed to have died on Thursday. All three were understood to have been receiving treatment for blood cancer.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said hospital officials were investigating the cluster, which had so far seen five patients and 10 staff test positive to COVID-19.

“The source is unknown. They are doing everything possible to get on top of it,” Dr Sutton said on Friday.

“It does illustrate the fact that when you are looking after very vulnerable patients in hospital, in settings like this, you have to be ­absolutely strict with everything.”

A spokeswoman for The Alfred confirmed that about 100 staff who had come into contact with the ­affected ward had been asked to self-isolate in a bid to halt the spread.

Contract tracing is under way in a bid to determine the source of the transmission.

The cluster is of particular concern, given the vulnerability of cancer patients to COVID-19.

Interim consensus guidance on managing cancer patients through­out the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been endorsed by a dozen clinical groups including the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia and Haematology ­Society of Australia and New Zealand, points to “early reports” that “suggest cancer is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease”.

“Early review of a Chinese nat­ional data repository suggested a disproportionately higher prevalence of cancer (mainly lung cancer) in patients with confirmed COVID-19, when compared to the general population,” says the guidance, which has been published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

“Patients with cancer could be at elevated risk of severe COVID-19 disease, while delivery of cancer therapies could be disrupted by quarantines, social-­distancing measures and dis­ruption to routine healthcare delivery by the pandemic.”

The Alfred spokeswoman declined to provide further details about the patients’ particular circumstances, such as whether their COVID-19 diagnoses interfered with any cancer treatment they were receiving at the time of infection, citing privacy legislation.

Their identities have not been publicly released.

Alfred Health chief executive Andrew Way said stringent infection control measures were in place on the ward, which has been closed to admissions since last week. Professor Way expressed his condolences for the family and friends of patients who had died.

“Our infectious diseases and infection prevention teams have supported us to put the most stringent plan into place, and we remain completely focused on the wellbeing of our patients and staff as this pandemic unfolds,” he said.

At least 135 healthworkers in Victoria have contracted COVID-19. This includes 10 in The Alfred, six at Box Hill Hospital and emergency department workers at Werribee Mercy Hospital in Werribee as well as an employee at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Assisi Aged Care.

Since its outbreak, The Alfred has introduced further restrictions on visitors. Temperature screening is now in place, and visiting hours have been reduced to a four-hour window each day: one visitor a patient for one hour maximum.