His death follows that of a woman, aged in her eighties, also a resident at Hardi’s Wyoming facility, as NSW aged care homes continue to see outbreaks of the Delta variant of COVID-19.11 residents and another staff member at RFBI’s Masonic Village aged care facility in Edgeworth, 18km west of Newcastle’s CBD, have tested positive to COVID-19 and been taken to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle.
“The concern is that we have also had another staff member test positive. He has been in isolation since Monday, but he worked up until Monday morning, and we have had to get all of our staff and residents swabbed again today,” said RFBI CEO Frank Price.
The first male staff member at Masonic Village to have COVID-19 worked shifts last Tuesday and last Wednesday, before becoming unwell and getting tested on Saturday and receiving a positive result on Monday. The worker had received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine and was due for his second dose on Sunday.
All but three of the residents at Masonic Village had been vaccinated, yet only 38% of staff are vaccinated. The home is in lockdown.
A nurse at SummitCare St Marys, 45km west of Sydney’s CBD, has tested positive for COVID-19, putting the aged care centre into lockdown on Wednesday.
“SummitCare St Marys has confirmed that a fully vaccinated nurse, who worked at the facility last Saturday and was COVID negative at the time, has tested positive overnight,” said a spokesperson for SummitCare.
SummitCare, which had two outbreaks at its aged care home in Baulkham Hills, 31km northwest of Sydney’s CBD, is confident that the virus hasn’t entered their St Marys facility, the spokesman said.
HammondCare’s aged care home at Waratah, 6km northwest of Newcastle’s CBD, also announced on Tuesday that one of its staff members was infected with COVID-19. The charity said on Wednesday that no-one else had tested positive. Three of its 17 residents were unvaccinated.
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District said on Tuesday there have been no new cases of COVID-19 at the Anglicare aged care centres Mildred Symons House, Jannali, which has 122 residents, and Mary Andrews Village at South Hurstville, which houses 50 residents.
NSW Health said there were no fully vaccinated COVID patients in intensive care wards on Wednesday.
