‘Mystery’ virus case concerns Vic authorities
Victoria recorded five new local COVID-19 cases on Sunday but it is a “mystery case” in a vaccinated Melbourne aged care worker that has authorities particularly worried.
Health workers are seen testing people for Covid19 at Royal Melbourne Showgrounds. Photo: AAP/Luis Ascui
Arcare Maidstone residents were locked down and placed into self-isolation on Sunday after a female healthcare worker at the facility tested positive.
The Altona woman worked at the site in the city’s northwest on Wednesday and Thursday and may have been infectious at the time.
Arcare chief executive Colin Singh said no other staff members or residents had returned positive results but further testing was planned for Tuesday.
“We know this is an anxious time, but we ask that you please do not call asking for the results,” Singh wrote in a letter.
The Altona woman, one of five local cases reported on Sunday, tested positive despite receiving her first coronavirus jab on May 12.
Only a third of Arcare Maidstone’s 110 staff and 53 of 76 residents have been vaccinated so far, and the federal government has brought forward scheduled vaccinations to Monday.
“Around the country, we have seen 85 per cent of residents in residential aged care facilities and 100 per cent of Victorian residential facilities, vaccinated so far,” federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters yesterday.
But Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said vaccination rates at the facility demonstrated Canberra’s “go-slow culture” on aged care.
“The hindsight of almost 2000 Victorian aged care residents contracting COVID-19, 655 resident deaths and more than 1600 aged care workers infected was not enough to motivate the Morrison government into urgent action,” she said.
The worker’s case is of “extreme concern” to Victorian health authorities as contact tracers are yet to link its transmission.
As Victoria’s list of exposure sites soared past 200, Acting Premier James Merlino said no decision has been made on whether the state’s seven-day lockdown will end on Thursday evening as planned.
“This is something that is evaluated every hour of every day,” he said.
Meanwhile, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas accused the federal government of failing to come to the aid of stood-down Victorian workers as he announced a $250 million business support package yesterday.
-with AAP
