Coronavirus: mystery case hits lockdown plan

A Melbourne aged care employee who worked for two days while potentially infectious with Covid-19 has emerged as a priority for contact tracers.

A heavily protected worker talks to a resident of the Arcare Aged Care at Maidstone, where a staff member has tested positive. Pictiure:Rob Leeson

The mystery case of a Melbourne aged care employee who worked for two days while potentially infectious with Covid-19 has emerged as a priority for contact tracers and a risk to Victoria ending its seven-day lockdown.

The healthcare worker, a woman aged in her 50s who tested positive on Saturday, has no known link to other cases in the state’s latest outbreak, which has spread to 40 after five new infections emerged on Sunday.

Victoria’s Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said the aged care case was an “extreme concern” due to both the work setting and unknown acquisition source.

Contact tracers were working hard to identify potential exposures within the facility but also the wider community, he said.

“This is the first mystery case we have seen in this particular outbreak,” Mr Weimar said.

“I am concerned that at this point in time we don’t have an original acquisition source.

“It is our most vulnerable and sensitive setting … and that is why we have put such an important response into this since late last night.”

Acting Premier James Merlino described the case as a “very, very serious matter” and declined to be drawn on whether lockdown restrictions would be eased on Friday as initially scheduled.

It was a day-by-day proposition, he warned.

“We are three days into a seven-day lockdown,” Mr Merlino said.

“Today we’re talking about a mystery case. Today we’re talking about aged care.

“There’s a lot of work to do.”

Mr Merlino said health officials were working at an “unbelievable rate” and a majority of more than 4000 primary close contacts across all exposure sites had been tested, with about 70 per cent returning negative tests so far.

More than 45,000 Victorians were tested on Saturday. A testing blitz was under way on Sunday at Arcare Aged Care Maidstone, which bills itself as a “five-star” private facility in Melbourne’s west, where residents have now been subjected to hard lockdown and confined to their rooms.

 

Staff were provided with upgraded “tier three” personal protection equipment and additional cleaners were also deployed to the centre, which has recorded seven positive cases throughout the pandemic – all of which were employees – but no deaths.

The risk of a further outbreak posed to aged care residents remains an issue of heightened community anxiety given that 80 per cent of the 801 people who died during the state’s second wave resided in aged care homes.

Mr Merlino thanked the worker for “doing the right thing” in getting tested as soon as she developed symptoms. However, it was likely she was infectious when working shifts on May 26 and 27.

Arcare management moved to reassure residents’ families on Sunday, advising that it was well prepared with infection control practices and in a good position to manage the outbreak effectively.

“This staff member had the first dose of the Covid vaccine and a significant number of our residents … have also had their first dose,” said Arcare chief executive Colin Singh.

“(The worker) was wearing a mask and did not have any symptoms at the time of working.”

There are now more than 175 potential public exposure sites across the state.