Coronavirus: new cases revealed in aged-care outbreak

It is likely more residents of a ­Sydney aged-care facility will be diagnosed with the coronavirus, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says.

Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park, Sydney where three cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. Picture: Getty Images

Two more residents of a Sydney aged-care centre have been diagnosed with coronavirus, after earlier warnings from NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant that more were coming.

Two staff at Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park in the city’s northwest were confirmed on Friday — a 24-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man — bringing total infections among staff at the centre to three.

A fourth resident was confirmed as having corona­virus. One of the infected ­residents, a 95-year-old woman, died on Tuesday.

Health authorities are still ­investigating how an aged-care worker at the home — who is ­believed to be the source of the outbreak — came to be infected.

The worker’s case is one of two in northwest Sydney in which the origin has not been established.

Seventeen children from the Banksia and Gumnut childcare centre who visited the nearby Dorothy Henderson Lodge late last month have been cleared of the virus. The NSW government has banned all visits by children from childcare centres to aged-care homes.

Dr Chant said despite the negative results the children would still be subject to restrictions.

“As a precaution, the child group that visited the nursing home will not be allowed to attend the childcare centre until next week, which will be 14 days since the visit,” she said.

“If any of them are unwell or change the situation, we will again reassess them for the utmost of caution.”

Investigations are continuing into how the virus spread at the lodge, with one of the elderly men who contracted the disease housed in a different area of the centre to the one in which the infected aged-care worker operated.

Nurses cared for “pods” of residents at the home, and the elderly male resident was found in a different pod to that serviced by the infected worker.

Residents have been isolated in their rooms, with all meals delivered by staff wearing full protective gear.

Some staff at the centre have refused to go to work since the outbreak was identified, the centre’s operator, BaptistCare, said.

“In these circumstances, we cannot force our team members to come into work,” a spokeswoman said.

“We do have Dorothy Henderson Lodge and BaptistCare staff on site, in addition to extra resources from NSW Health, to cover the care needs of residents.

“We are doing everything we can do to source additional staff from across BaptistCare and other health providers and agencies.”