Two other aged care facilities in Goulburn are coping with positive COVID-19 cases among residents.
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The good news is that all four, two each in Warrigal at Marys Mount and Masonic Village are asymptomatic, the providers say.
A Warrigal spokeswoman said two residents contracted the virus from a relative during a visit on Christmas Day.
"Both residents are double vaccinated and have received their booster shot," she said.
"They are both asymptomatic and are in good health. They are being closely monitored several times daily to ensure there are no changes to their condition."
Both Warrigal and Masonic Village are in lockdown as a result. Last week, Waminda Aged Care also closed to visitors following a positive COVID case in a resident. He was placed in intensive care at Goulburn Base Hospital but his son said on Monday that he was improving and would likely be transferred to a ward this week. A staff member had also contracted the virus, the Salvation Army operated centre advised on December 27.
Like that facility, Warrigal and Masonic have enacted outbreak management plans, the former on December 29.
No other Warrigal residents or staff had COVID-19. One staff member had tested positive for COVID but contracted it externally, was unrelated to the outbreak and had been in isolation since, the spokeswoman said.
Special outbreak meetings had been held with the health district's public health unit to ensure all precautions were being implemented in accordance with strict infection control practice.
"Warrigal's regime of daily rapid testing and regular PCR testing has been very helpful to monitor everyone's condition," the spokeswoman said.
"Warrigal has a central clinical compliance team that assists every home with infection outbreaks of any kind, and a comprehensive support services team also make sure front line managers and staff are well supported during these very challenging times."
The facility remains shut to visitors, except in special circumstances like palliative care visits. This is likely to apply for at least another week until management is confident there is no further risk of infection. The provider says patient care is not affected. However it has fired a salvo at regulatory authorities.
"Warrigal's management is very supportive of its front line staff and is very frustrated with the state and federal government's changes to public COVID testing and infection protection rules," the spokeswoman said.
"These changes have allowed many more cases to spread across the community, into families and ultimately into high-risk setting such as aged care homes. A more cautious approach would have been wise till after the high transmission risk events of Christmas and New Year.
"Warrigal will continue to apply strict infection safety arrangements to protect its very vulnerable residents and staff till the public transmission rates decline to an acceptable level. Older people with underlying health conditions deserve protection in their homes from the devastating effects of COVID."
Meantime, Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution (RFBI) CEO Frank Price confirmed that a staff member at north Goulburn's Masonic Village had tested positive to COVID-19 on December 24. Since then two more staff and two residents had also returned positive results. A rapid antigen test had showed a positive result for an additional staff member but this was yet to be confirmed with a PCR test.
The residents were in the dementia wing and one-on-one care had been implemented to prevent them wandering into other rooms and spreading the infection.
"(However) both residents are asymptomatic and are doing well. All are double-vaccinated and have had their booster shots," he said.
"The staff are also doing well...It's as good an outbreak as you can hope for."
Mr Price could not say whether the residents contracted the virus from a visitor or staff member. Masonic has also rapid antigen tested all staff and visitors daily since early December. The tests, funded by the provider, had become far more difficult to secure in recent time, Mr Price told The Post.
The cases have impacted staffing, though the CEO says Masonic is still operating at 95 per cent capacity. Close contacts of the positive cases had to isolate and PCR results were taking up to six days.
"The real challenge is that staff have to isolate for 14 days if identified as a close contact. If that continues we won't have anyone to look after our older people and that's a problem," he said.
The federal government has flagged changes to this requirement in recent days to ease the aged care workforce shortage.
The Masonic Village has 60 staff.
Mr Price was however relieved that recovery rates for older people with COVID had vastly improved from this time last year, given vaccination and booster shots.
He hoped the facility could emerge from lockdown in the next few days.
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Louise Thrower
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
