Coronavirus: Fear of deadly surge at aged-care homes

There has been an outbreak at yet another aged-care home in NSW.

The Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged-care facility in Sydney’s Ryde.

A sixth resident at BaptistCare’s Dorothy Henderson Lodge has died from coronavirus.

The death of the 90-year-old man from the Macquarie Park facility took the NSW death toll to 19 and national total to 41.

In a statement released by ­BaptistCare on Monday, chief executive Ross Low said it was “nothing short of heartbreaking to have another resident lose their life to this virus”.

“I have been on the phone this afternoon with the resident’s family, and I grieve with them in their loss,” Mr Low said. “Our residents are not just numbers; they are beloved individuals in our care and the very reason we exist.

“Our care staff and those who are part of Dorothy Henderson Lodge are doing their very best caring for our residents as they would their own family.”

Dorothy Henderson Lodge has 16 residents and five staff who have tested positive for coronavirus.

An outbreak at another aged-care home in NSW has raised concerns more deaths are to come.

NSW Health revealed an 86-year-old man, a resident of Opal Care Bankstown aged-care facility in Sydney’s west, died in Liverpool Hospital after contracting COVID-19. There are now five cases associated with the facility, including two residents and three staff members.

Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases specialist at the Australian National University, said it was concerning the virus had been transmitted in another nursing home.

“The most complicated cases and highest death rates occur in the older population,” he said.

“As you get older the risk of complication increases.”

He said it was too early to tell why the virus was much worse in the elderly but suspected pre-existing health conditions exacerbated by the virus, including chronic heart disease and lung disease, made older people more vulnerable. “Our immune systems weaken as we get older, so if an infection hits a person who has other health problems it can make them more susceptible to developing complications which can be deadly, so the spread of the virus throughout an aged-care facility could be very damaging,” he said.

Professor Senanayake said doing the “utmost to protect the vulnerable elderly population by being careful and vigilant when it comes to social distancing” could decrease the spread of coronavirus in aged-care facilities.

He also warned the curve in Australia needed to be flattened ahead of winter to eliminate any chance for a surge in cases, particularly among aged-care residents.

“We know this virus has been a big issue during winter in the northern hemisphere, but unfortunately we can’t answer if that was purely a coincidence or it happened because it was winter,” he said.