Coronavirus: Fears 40 aged-care residents will die

Authorities are anticipating that 40 of the 110 COVID-positive nursing home residents in Victoria won’t survive the second wave outbreak.

An elderly resident is transported out of[ Menarock LIFE Aged Care in Essendon. Picture: Ian Currie

Authorities are anticipating that 40 of the 110 COVID-positive nursing home residents in Victoria won’t survive as they introduce new measures to try and control the “alarming” second wave outbreak.

In the past two weeks 49 nursing homes in Victoria have been linked to coronavirus, with 110 residents infected, federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said.

Another three nursing homes reported cases on Sunday, and two more nursing home residents, both in their 90s, died.

“This is a genuine concern. These cases have all occurred in the last two weeks, which is very alarming,” Mr Colbeck told The Australian. “They are the most vulnerable.”

“If you look at this nationally the mortality rate is about 37 per cent, so 35 to 40 out of 100 (in residential aged care) who have the virus won’t survive,” he said.

“It’s much higher in these settings because the people are there for a reason, with comorbidities that make them more vulnerable to the virus.”

Mr Colbeck said the COVID-positive residents were situated in just 11 of the homes, with the remainder of the positive cases being care staff.

A significant number of aged care workers are employed in more than one nursing home, either working in different homes operated by the same provider, or even working for different providers. They are likely to be unwittingly transmitting the virus into facilities.

To counter this threat the ­federal and Victorian governments on Sunday announced a ­series of new measures, including financially supporting providers and employees to ensure ­carers only need to work in one home.

Five new mobile COVID-testing teams have been deployed to test staff and residents across the lockdown zones of metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire, even if they don’t have symptoms.

And agreement has been reached with private hospitals to provide additional capacity for any nursing home residents who need treatment.

Mr Colbeck said those in residential aged care who contracted the virus would receive hospital treatment if it was required, but transfer to hospital was not automatic in Victoria and would continue to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

He warned that if all nursing home cases were transferred automatically to hospitals in the current second wave outbreak it would quickly overrun available resources.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos also announced that visitation in the state’s nursing homes would, from July 22, be restricted to those who are considered a resident’s carer, and even they will be limited to just one hour a day.

“We know that this will be difficult for Victorian families, but ultimately this is about keeping the people we love safe,” Ms Mikakos said.

Provider advocate Pat Sparrow from Aged and Community Services Australia said given the rapidly accelerating positive cases in aged care, it was pleasing to see ­governments acting quickly, but more detailed work was needed to ensure the outbreak could be contained.

“There are high mortality rates, and providers don’t want it to get into aged care and have to be able to manage it when it does,” Mr Sparrow said.

“It’s good governments have found extra capacity in private hospitals, but we think given the high mortality rate an overarching policy should be adopted that positive cases are automatically transferred to hospital to give them the best chance of survival.

“We will also need to work on the detail of the one worker-one facility policy to ensure that no worker is disadvantaged and that providers are appropriately resourced,” she said.

Leading Age Services Australia manager of policy and advocacy Tim Hicks welcomed the federal funding commitment to keep staff at individual locations, but added that “it is crucial that no staff or providers are disadvantaged”.