COVID-19 cases in Tamworth linked to Bupa Aged Care, Uniting and Nazareth House force homes to ramp up preventative protections

The Leader can reveal Bupa Aged Care, Uniting Aged Care and Nazareth House have been affected, forcing an immediate ban to be put on almost all visitors.

A spokesperson for Uniting Aged Care confirmed two residents in McKay House tested positive for COVID-19 early in the new year, and the outbreak management plan was immediately activated.

The spokesperson hit out at the pandemic health response for not prioritising aged care when it comes to PCR testing and support measures.

"This new variant of COVID-19 has high rates of community transmission, which means more outbreaks in residential aged care are inevitable, which will see some of the most vulnerable people in our community become infected," they said.

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As part of the homes' health responses to keep everyone as safe as possible, all staff must wear full personal protective equipment, regular testing is occurring, residents are being monitored for symptoms and families are being updated.

Three staff at Bupa Aged Care and two at Nazareth House have tested positive to the virus.

Nazareth Care chief executive David Cotter said it was a great comfort that the affected staff had not worked since late December.

He said the facility was being "very prudent" given the vulnerability of residents but accepted there are sadly risks that do come with a global pandemic that need to be managed as best as they can.

"It is very difficult for families who only want to help but are limited given the necessary infection control measures in place, again to protect the vulnerable," he said.

Two of the Bupa staff had not worked since late December and only tested positive this week.

A third worker was waiting for PCR results in isolation after receiving a positive rapid test on Monday.

No further residents or staff had tested positive across any of the three facilities by Wednesday afternoon.

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