Bacchus Marsh nursing home in lockdown after staff member tests positive
An aged care facility west of Melbourne is in lockdown after an asymptomatic staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
All staff and residents at the Grant Lodge nursing home in Bacchus Marsh who had contact with the infected person are being tested. Staff who had contact will be sent home to isolate.
The staff member is believed to have had contact with residents and families are being notified. Contact tracing is being undertaken to determine which residents had contact with the infected employee.
The staff member was asymptomatic, according to a statement from Djerriwarrh Health Services, and was tested on Saturday as part of the state government's testing blitz. The staff member has been isolating since Saturday and remains asymptomatic, the health service said.
The nursing home has been deep-cleaned and management is working through staffing arrangements to ensure residents have adequate care during this period.
"Djerriwarrh Health Services has been driving an aggressive COVID-19 testing program for staff and community, and will rely on contact tracing to identify the source of the transmission and any possible other transmission risks," the statement says.
"Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital continue to operate in strict accordance with current protocols."
Djerriwarrh Health Services website says Grant Lodge provides a “home-like” environment for “30 high care residents”.
Eleven of its 18 rooms are shared and it is located next to Baccus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital.
In March, two Melbourne nursing homes reported coronavirus incidents. One was a positive staff member at the Assisi Centre in Rosanna and another was a doctor who visited Rathdowne Place in Carlton.
In April, a coronavirus cluster was discovered among residents and staff at Hawthorn Grange residential aged care.
In Sydney, 16 people have died due to an outbreak at an aged care centre. Newmarch House has become the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in NSW, with 37 cases among its residents, and now 29 among staff.
The case at Grant Lodge comes after four more cases of coronavirus were linked to an outbreak at the Cedar Meats abattoir in Melbourne's west, bringing the cluster to 49 people.
The state opposition is calling for an inquiry into the cluster, saying the outbreak is "Daniel Andrews' own Ruby Princess".
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said authorities may struggle to determine the original source of the cluster at the Brooklyn meatworks.
But he is confident it has not stemmed from a worker who tested positive for the virus early in April, well before health authorities raised the alarm.
The worker who tested positive on April 2 told the Department of Health and Human Services they had not been at work at any time when they could have potentially infected others.
"I have been told that that early case wasn't part of the cluster - wasn't on site," Professor Sutton told 3AW radio station on Wednesday.
The second case linked to the workplace was diagnosed on April 24, followed by a third case about 24 hours later of a person who underwent surgery at Sunshine Hospital for a severed thumb prior to diagnosis or displaying symptoms.
A healthcare worker became infected through the worker's Sunshine Hospital visit, while others have been quarantined.
It wasn't until April 29 that the department took additional actions, including testing all Cedar Meats staff.
Professor Sutton said while those early cases linked to the cluster are known, it's not clear exactly how the outbreak emerged.
"People can have really mild symptoms and we'll really struggle to understand who introduced it and when, but somebody's brought it into the facility," he said.
Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter
With AAP