Covid-19: Aged-care ‘Christmas in July’ party in Sydney turns super-spreader

NSW health officials fear a misjudged ‘Christmas in July’ party at an aged-care home in Sydney’s inner west has become a super-spreader event.

Members of the Australian Defence Force and NSW Police Force deliver food packages to residents of Canley Heights in Sydney’s southwest on Monday. Picture: Toby Zerna

NSW health officials fear a misjudged “Christmas in July” party at an aged-care home in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Summer Hill has become a super-spreader event that could seriously derail efforts to contain the outbreak.

A nurse who worked at the ­facility while asymptomatic had also worked in several other aged-care centres, including St Hedwig Retirement Village at Blacktown, while infectious.

Authorities are already falling behind in tracing contacts of Covid-19 cases, with less than half of Monday’s 207 new cases in isolation throughout their infectious period.

The source of infection for almost half of new cases is also still under investigation.

By Monday morning, the cluster at the Wyoming Residential Aged Care Facility, owned by Hardi Aged Care, had grown to 18 residents and two staff members.

All residents have been taken to hospital either to be treated for the virus or as a precaution, chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

“The reason … is that some of them are obviously positive and others are close contacts of the positive cases,” Dr Chant said.

“Sometimes it isn’t a good idea to have a ‘Christmas in July’ right in the middle of a pandemic, but I do understand it is an effort to try and provide entertainment and support to residents,” said Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

A spokesperson for Hardi Aged Care said the event was the nursing home’s monthly lunch, which had a Christmas theme, with carols played on a speaker.

Of 61 residents, 50 had been vaccinated, while 10 had declined for various reasons.

“It is a strong message to everybody that you should get vaccinated because out of those 10, who for various reasons refused to be vaccinated, seven are positive,” Mr Hazzard said. 

The movements of the nurse reinforced concerns that staff at homes continue to work across multiple facilities. “We are working with the commonwealth to ensure that the procedure that staff do not move across multiple facilities is firmly in place,” Dr Chant said.

Of the 207 new locally acquired cases in NSW, 105 were linked to a known case or cluster but the source of infection for 102 cases remained under ­investigation. Seventy-two cases were not in isolation for either the whole or part of their infectious period, with the isolation status of 46 cases still under investigation. 

There are 232 Covid-19 cases in hospital in the state, with 54 people in intensive care, 25 of whom require ventilation. No one in intensive care in NSW has received both doses of the vaccine.