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The entrance to the Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydney. Photo: Jane Dempster
Sector reeling from virus
We chart the course of
COVID-19 in Australia and its
effects on the aged care sector.
By Conor Burke
I
n a matter of only four months the
coronavirus pandemic has changed the
way we live, perhaps forever. As Australia
is in the early stages of its version of the
crisis, those looking at China, Europe, the
US and elsewhere could have cause to
worry about further spread of the virus.
However, through strict border controls
and near lockdown conditions, Prime
Minister Scott Morrison believes that we
are seeing a flattening of the curve, and it is
clear that we are yet to feel the full force of
this pandemic.
As a result, aged care facilities have been
subject to strict lockdown procedures
since mid-March, and as this coronavirus
appears to be more infectious and faster
spreading than influenza – which last year
affected approximately 310,000 Australians
with 900 deaths – we could see these
lockdowns last for the foreseeable future.
COVID-19 TIMELINE
Cases of COVID-19, as a result of
contracting coronavirus, were first
identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei
province in Central China, which has a
population of more than 11 million. On
January 7, officials announced they had
identified a new virus, according to the
WHO. On January 11, China announced
its first death, and two days later the first
foreign case was confirmed in Thailand.
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agedcareinsite.com.au
By January 23, Wuhan had been
effectively shut down, with all planes,
trains, buses, subways and other forms
of transport cancelled and stopped from
leaving the city. At this point, only 581
cases had been confirmed globally (571 in
China) with seven deaths, all in Hubei.
January 25 saw the first Australian cases,
as four men, three from NSW and one from
Victoria, presented with symptoms. All four
had recently flown back to Australia from
China and had been in Wuhan.
By January 30, the WHO had declared
the new coronavirus a “global emergency”.
The government was preparing for a
potential outbreak at an aged care facility
by early February, urging people to stay
away from aged care facilities and isolate
themselves at home if they had travelled to
mainland China within the past 14 days or
had come in contact with a confirmed case
of novel coronavirus in that same period.
But it was not until March 4 that we saw
the first outbreak, which occurred at the
Dorothy Henderson Lodge, a BaptistCare
facility at Macquarie Park in Sydney’s
northwest.
An aged care worker at the facility
contracted the virus, and subsequently
16 residents and five staff have confirmed
cases of COVID-19, with seven others who
had contact with them also infected.
As panic gripped the nation and
shoppers started to hoard basic items,
such as toilet paper and pasta, shops
like Woolworths and Coles introduced
dedicated hours for older Australians and
those with disabilities.
“I would think that we could make a
decision as a network in the next 24–48
hours,” IGA chief executive Fred Harrison
recently told Nine.
“[Yesterday] I went into our Mount Eliza
store and a customer I knew came up
and spoke to me and said that a senior
lady down the aisle is absolutely crying
her eyes out. I said, ‘Why, what’s wrong?’
She said she had been into the store
eight consecutive mornings to buy toilet
rolls, but we had none, and she was
beside herself.”
As confirmed cases increased, so too did
government measures to curb the spread.
On March 17, Morrison announced that
visitors who are sick or anyone returning
from overseas would be barred from going
to aged care facilities. Only short visits to
residents at facilities would be allowed,
with a maximum of two people once a day.
Any visits would have to take place in
a resident’s room or designated space,
barring any communal areas, and
Morrison urged everyone to practise social
distancing of 1.5 metres.
He also reiterated that any staff who had
been overseas, and anyone who had been
in contact with a confirmed COVID-19
case, would not be able to enter a facility.
This also applied to anyone who didn’t
have up-to-date flu vaccines.
All visiting school groups were barred
from aged care, as was any outside
entertainment.
Children under the age of 16 could only
visit with special exemptions.
Morrison has said that palliative care
restrictions would be left to the discretion
of the facilities, as long as they adhered
to the general social distancing principles
already expected of the general population.