Esther Lauaki
Aged care workers in Brimbank’s two worst affected facilities will be COVID tested weekly to fight any further outbreaks.
While outbreaks at Cumberland Manor Aged Care in Sunshine North, linked to 124 cases, and Kalyna Aged Care in Delahey, linked to 109 cases, have slowed, the state government last week announced a roll out of its new Surveillance Testing Program.
The surveillance program – a defense measure as Victoria takes steps towards reopening – aims to have 25 per cent of staff in a high-risk workplace tested each week.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the government was doing even more to monitor sensitive settings like aged care.
“There are 147 active cases linked to aged care facilities in metropolitan Melbourne,” Mr Andrews said.
“Our officials have reached an agreement with the Commonwealth to ensure regular testing of our public and private sector aged care workforce.
“Public health teams will test all public aged care facility staff because they are often co-located and are linked to hospital services.
“Commonwealth health teams will test private aged care facility staff using a private provider.
“Metropolitan aged care staff will be tested every fortnight … around 50 per cent of the workforce a week.
“If a staff member is asymptomatic and not linked to an aged care outbreak they will not be required to isolate and wait for their test results to come through before they return to work.
“This is to ensure that we have a really significant sample of aged care staff in Melbourne and in the regions in the public sector, which is a big part of our overall aged care sector, getting tested.
“It is a way to monitor and achieve three things; finding any coronavirus cases that are there, validating that there aren’t coronavirus cases there – which is important given how vulnerable our residents are in aged care– and it gives us an opportunity to monitor compliance with all the other COVID safe planning and to make sure that everyone is being as vigilant as they can be across all sectors.”
Brimbank, considered a COVID hotspot, had 43 active cases at the end of last week.
