Coronavirus: Nursing homes feel the pain of fresh outbreak

Fears mount as the number of new cases in Victorian nursing homes climbs to 50 during the second wave outbreak.

Paramedics emerge from the Menarock Life nursing home in Essendon with an elderly patient on Monday. Picture: Aaron Francis

Aged-care residents who contracted COVID-19 were being transferred to hospital on Monday as the number of new cases in Victorian nursing homes reached 50 during the second wave outbreak.

Ambulance officers in full personal protective equipment ferried residents from the 55-bed Menarock Life aged-care facility in Essendon on Monday after 31 people, including 14 residents, tested positive for coronavirus.

Victorian Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton said the Menarock Life outbreak was “the biggest one in aged care in Victoria to date” and the most at-risk residents had been moved to acute care settings. “Some of them have been transferred to hospital. Obviously that’s because they are at risk of very significant consequences, but also because it helps to manage the outbreak in these settings,” Professor Sutton said.

He said he was worried about COVID-19 infiltrating further into the “at-risk setting” of nursing homes because residents were vulnerable to serious illness or death from the virus.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt also expressed concern about the growing number of COVID-positive cases in aged care, announcing four million disposable masks would be distributed across the sector in Victoria.

“The latest advice I have is that there are 35 services, whether it’s an aged-care residence or in some way shape or form, a home-care residence, where there has been either a staff member or a resident identified as having been tested positive,” Mr Hunt said.

“This is … along with our remote indigenous communities, our area of greatest risk.

“We have to be prepared to recognise that any impact in an aged-care institution could have dramatic consequences.”

It is understood the Victorian Health Department has heeded the lessons of the Newmarch House outbreak in western Sydney in April and May.

Seventeen residents died after most of those who caught the virus were treated on site at the instruction of NSW Health.

Sources said Victorian authorities had determined that COVID-positive aged-care residents in Victoria would be sent to hospital unless their facility was sufficiently designed, equipped and staffed to offer full isolation, a decision to be made on a case-by-case basis.

Menarock Life Essendon is understood to be of inappropriate design to enable safe isolation of COVID-positive residents on site.

 

Sean Rooney, chief executive of peak aged-care provider group Leading Age Services Australia, supported the move to transfer ill residents to hospital rather than treating them in situ. “This allows emergency care to be administered and should be the case in outbreaks in aged-care homes across the nation,” he said.

Announcing Victoria had recorded 177 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, Professor Sutton said a total of 26 people at Menarock Life had tested positive, up from 11 the day before. Later in the day, the nursing home released a statement revealing the figure was actually 31.

“Fourteen residents and 17 staff … have tested positive for COVID-19,” the statement said.

“A further 21 residents have returned negative COVID-19 tests and have been retested with results pending.

“Additional clinical expertise has been redeployed to Menarock Life Essendon, including an infection control co-¬ordinator being stationed on site, along with PPE supplies from the national medical stockpile, additional testing capabilities and an emergency surge workforce.”

Along with Menarock Life, Glendale Aged Care in Werribee has reported 13 positive cases to date, including 90-year-old Alf Jordan who died last week, Japara Central Park in Windsor a further two and Estia Ardeer another 13.

Estia Health on Monday sought a trading halt from the ASX, advising that two care staff who worked across three facilities had tested positive but neither had worked while showing symptoms and no resident had tested positive. Two hours later it made a statement to the ASX that 13 residents at its Ardeer home had tested positive for coronavirus.

“The company has activated its COVID-19 positive test response plan and is working with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and the Commonwealth Department of Health to manage and monitor the situation.”

In the past week, other aged-care facilities reported staff had tested positive and worked while infectious, including Baptcare The Orchards in Doncaster East, Blue Cross Ivanhoe, Benetas St George’s in Altona Meadows and Doutta Galla Lynch’s Bridge in Kensington.