Coroanvirus: Infected nurse not told of abattoir risk

A nurse treating a Cedar Meats worker was exposed because her hospital wasn’t told one of his colleagues had tested positive.

The Cedar Meats factory in Brooklyn, Melbourne. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A nurse infected with COVID-19 while treating a Cedar Meats worker with a severed thumb was left exposed because authorities had not alerted the hospital that another worker at the Melbourne abattoir had tested positive 22 days earlier.

The Australian has confirmed that the Sunshine Hospital nurse was not initially required to wear appropriate personal protective equipment while treating the worker, because the hospital had not been made aware of the risks.

The nurse, aged in her 60s, treated the worker during three consecutive shifts on April 24, 25 and 26, but was not required to wear PPE to protect her from ­possible COVID-19 infection until the third shift.

She experienced symptoms last Friday and received­ confirmation on Sunday that she had tested positive to COVID-19.

There is deep concern among those close to the nurse that the Health Department and therefore the hospital had not identified an infection in a Cedar Meats worker on April 2 as a risk to the workplace.

The Andrews government and Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton faced increasing pressure­ on Wednesday over why the Department of Health and Human Services decided not to treat Cedar Meats as a potential exposure site when the worker tested positive on April 2.

The number of cases linked to the abattoir in the western Melbourne suburb of Brooklyn rose to 49 on Wednesday, including 45 workers and four close contacts — among them the Sunshine Hospital nurse and a worker at the ­Doutta Galla aged-care home in Footscray, who is understood to be the partner of a Cedar Meats worker. Late on Tuesday night, after failing to respond to question­s first put on Monday morning, the department released a statement confirming a worker was diagnosed on April 2 “but had not been at work while infectious so the workplace was not considered an exposure site”.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton addresses the media during a press conference in Melbourne on Monday.

In a grab for Melbourne radio station’s 3AW news bulletin at 8.30am on Wednesday, Professor Sutton claimed the April 2 case had been “misreported as having been a case at the facility or a case linked to the facility when we’ve been very explicit that it wasn’t linked to the facility”.

Just over an hour later, he was interviewed by 3AW host Neil Mitchell, who told him a Cedar Meats worker had contacted the radio station to say the worker diagnos­ed on April 2 had in fact been at work while ­infectious.

“We had close contact with him, we saw him, we talked to him,” Mitchell said he had been told by the workmate.

Asked whether he was confid­ent the infected worker had not been at work, Professor Sutton said: “We can only go on what we’re told and, you know, we’ll ­triangulate that information if there’s an opportunity to do so.

“This is the first I’ve heard (of) an ­alternative story. It remains a rumour­, but if it needs checking in order to have some assurance about, you know, how it might have been introduced into this plant, then that’s an appropr­iate thing that we should do.”

At a later press conference with Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, Professor Sutton had more detail on the April 2 case, saying the infected worker “was interviewed on the same day and advised DHHS that he’d not been at Cedar Meats for the four weeks prior to becoming unwell, or indeed­ during the entire period he was unwell”.

Asked if he suspected the ­worker might not have been telling the truth, Professor Sutton said: “No, I don’t.” He added that health officials took “everyone on face value that they are telling us the truth about where they’ve been”. Ms Mikakos went a step further, saying the April 2 infection may be completely unrelated to the later cases.

“Unless the virus got into a car itself and went to Cedar Meats, there is no way that virus could have been connected to that worksite,” she said. Challenged over her department’s handling of the cluster, Ms Mikakos praised staff.

“It’s been handled absolutely perfectly,” she said.

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien likened the ­Andrews government’s handling of the Cedar Meats cluster to that of the Ruby Princess cruise ship cluster, which has been linked to hundreds of COVID-19 cases and more than 20 deaths, after passengers were allowed to leave the ship without being tested when it docked in Sydney.

“This is Daniel Andrews’ own Ruby Princess,” Mr O’Brien said.

“We’ve now got one of the ­biggest coronavirus clusters in Victoria because the government has dropped the ball.”

Cedar Meats did not respond to a request for comment.