The number of aged care homes with positive cases of coronavirus has jumped again with seven more aged care workers diagnosed yesterday.
The new cases include:
- Two staff members who worked at For Profit Menarock Life Aged Care’s home in Essendon, 12km north of the Melbourne CBD.
- A staff member who worked at Not For Profit’s BaptCare The Orchards Community in Doncaster, 18km east of the CBD while infectious (BaptCare also had a case diagnosed on Tuesday at their Kew home).
- A staff member who worked at Not For Profit Benetas’ St George’s aged care home in Altona Meadows, 17km southwest of the CBD, while infectious.
- A staff member who worked at For Profit BlueCross’ home in Ivanhoe, 9km northeast of the CBD, while infectious.
- A staff member who worked at For Profit Aurrum Aged Care’s home in Healesville, 52km northeast of the CBD, but was not infectious at the time.
- A staff member who worked at the For Profit Holmwood Aged Care home also in Healesville, but was not infectious at the time.
Benetas CEO Sandra Hills (pictured) says their staff member had received their diagnosis on Tuesday and had been in isolation since Sunday 5 July when they developed a sore throat and notified their manager.
They last worked on Friday 3 July – when they had no symptoms – in two of the home’s wings with all those residents now being isolated and monitored for symptoms.
Staff who worked with the infected employee are also in quarantine at home until they receive a negative test result.
Benetas has already restricted access to all its homes in metropolitan Melbourne from midnight Wednesday 8 July in line with the Victorian Government’s decision to reinstate Stage 3 ‘Stay at Home’ restrictions across Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.
The new cases bring the total number of aged care homes affected in the past 48 hours to 11 – with 10 out of the 11 cases linked to staff living in the community.
Given many aged care staff come from non-English speaking backgrounds, the cases support the theory that migrant communities are at greater risk of infection.
In total, Victoria recorded 165 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with 932 cases currently active. 40 people are now in hospital, including nine in intensive care.
