Good news mixed with a serious warning.
All the 77 residents remaining at the Rockhampton Nursing Home Centre where an Enrolled Nurse working as a receptionist tested positive for coronavirus last week have continued to produce negative results, along with all 180 other staff.
As we covered here, 35 of the facility’s lower-risk residents were moved from one of its three wings to the Mater and Hillcrest hospitals in Rockhampton.
The remaining residents have all now been moved into separate rooms as a precaution.
However, in worrying news, the sole new Queensland case overnight has come from a Brisbane woman in her 70s who only developed symptoms two months after returning from India via Singapore – and appears she may have acquired the virus overseas.
“At this stage, we’re not sure whether that is a persistent case, or whether she’s acquired it here,” Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeanette Young, stated.
“We think it most likely that she acquired the case in India, but we’ll now have to do a lot of work to work through that, some additional testing and also we’ll have to talk to her and look at contact-tracing.”
If the tracing finds the woman did pick up the virus on her travels, it will be confirmation that the virus can develop symptoms months after exposure – a serious concern for both aged care and village operator and the community at large.
