The death of the 93-year-old woman yesterday morning at the Western Sydney home takes Australia’s official COVID-19 death toll to 100.
37 residents and 34 staff at Newmarch House have tested positive for the virus since the first case was diagnosed on 11 April – just over five weeks ago – though there have been no new cases among residents since 30 April and none among staff for a week.
The news comes as Anglicare CEO Grant Millard again repeated his comments that NSW Health had opted for a containment strategy for the outbreak at Newmarch House and in hindsight, he believed that the COVID-19 positive resident should have been transferred to hospital.
Anglicare tells us that they are “not trying to start a blame game” with the health authorities or the Commonwealth, but it is “simply how it’s coming across in the media.”
“We’re very grateful for the support we’ve had,” they said. “We are just trying to lay out the facts.”
The Royal Commission into Aged Care will be examining Newmarch House as well as BaptistCare’s Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Opal’s Bankstown home when it holds its own hearing into the coronavirus outbreaks in Australia’s aged care homes.
