Health authorities fear there will be more deaths in Victoria’s aged-care sector in coming days as the state braces for another day of new COVID-19 cases.
With more than 680 cases in at least 61 aged-care facilities across the state, there is a significant risk more elderly residents will die in coming days despite many being moved into private hospitals for care.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said five per cent of all coronavirus cases in Victoria since April were among aged-care residents and four per cent among staff.
“The tragedy of COVID-19 is we know with the number of new infections we have seen, there will be many further deaths in the days ahead,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday some industries would be forced to close as people who are going to work sick are the “biggest driver” of the state’s second wave.
On Tuesday morning, staff at the JBS abattoir in Melbourne’s west walked off the job until the company can assure them they will be safe, their union says.
Victoria’s biggest meat-processing facility, which employs more than 1200 people, has recorded 71 COVID-19 cases, but the United Workers Union argues the company has failed to address safety concerns.
The union also claims some workers have been left without any income at all while isolating or had to draw on their annual leave.
Mr Andrews had earlier warned the state’s six-week lockdown would not end until people stop going to work with symptoms and even flagged the possibility some industries could be shut down.
There are 245 people in hospital with the coronavirus in Victoria, including 44 in intensive care.
St Basil’s Home for the Aged worst hit
On Monday, five of Australia’s six deaths were linked to Melbourne nursing homes as the national toll rose to 161.
Federal and state health authorities are concerned community transmission of the disease is driving infections among aged care residents and staff.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has asked the aged care quality and safety commissioner to investigate St Basil’s after reports of people being left without food and lying in soiled sheets.
Mr Hunt says 79 of 115 residence at St Basil’s in Fawkner have been transferred, with more expected to be moved on Tuesday.
He’s very cautious over modelling showing Victoria may have reached its peak in cases.
“We hope that, in the coming days or week, we reach that peak, if we haven’t already,” he told the ABC.
“But we won’t count any flattening of the curve until we see a week of sustained lower cases. And at this point, cases have been rising, not falling.”
There are now 84 cases linked to St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner, 82 at Estia Health in Ardeer, 77 at Epping Gardens Aged Care, and 62 at Menarock Aged Care in Essendon.
Glendale Aged Care in Werribee has 53 cases linked to it, and 57 are associated with Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth.
Earlier in the pandemic, 19 residents of Sydney’s Newmarch House nursing home died from coronavirus.
NSW recorded 17 new cases on Monday, with eight detected among returned travellers in hotel quarantine and nine locally acquired.
The Northern Territory will remain shut to Sydneysiders for at least another four weeks.
Queensland has pledged to “slam the border shut” to all other states if outbreaks become more widespread.
People from Victoria and hotspots in NSW are banned from travelling to Queensland without an exemption.
-with AAP
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