Of the 37 residents who tested positive to COVID-19 at the Newmarch House, only two were transferred to hospital. One of those died. The other 16 residents who died of COVID-19 were all treated at Newmarch House, the royal commission heard this week.

Every one of its 22 nursing homes in the greater Sydney region also answered yes to every question, the commission heard.

Anglicare service development and practice governance general manager Erica Roy said, with the benefit of hindsight, the statement about its pandemic readiness "was not accurate".

"In particular I acknowledge with sadness ..... during the outbreak, especially with keeping family members updated about their loved ones at a time of great anxiety and distress and maintaining care standards for our residents at a time of huge challenges with the staffing numbers," she told the commission.

She also said the guidelines by Communicable Diseases Network Australia "drew us to treat COVID as a flu-like illness".

"I think, in hindsight, we realised that it's a lot more virulent and a lot more, has a lot more of an impact," Ms Roy told the commission. She also realised now that they had not adequately prepared for the loss of staff, and the need to have a larger number as part of a "surge team".

Anglicare's Newmarch was not the only aged care facility to overestimate its readiness.

Counsel assisting the commission Paul Rozen QC said on Monday that 99.3 per cent of services surveyed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission said they had an infection control respiratory outbreak plan, 92.6 per cent of services said staff at the service had been educated on the policies and processes for all aspects of outbreak identification and management, particularly infection control, 99.5 per cent of services said they had a plan for communicating with staff, residents, volunteers, and family members and other service providers during an outbreak

Virginia Clark's dad Ron Farrell was one of those who died of COVID-19 at Newmarch House.

Ms Clarke said there was not enough staff to manage an outbreak, they weren't sufficiently trained, and communication with families was poor.

When Mr Farrell tested positive for COVID-19, nobody told him or his daughter.

A few days after the facility went into lockdown on Easter Sunday, when a staff member tested positive, Ms Clarke was told all residents were being tested.

She told the Aged Care Royal Commission on Tuesday that she kept asking if her 94-year-old father’s results had come back, but kept being told they hadn’t yet.

When they got the results, nobody told her until a chance call from the residential manager of Newmarch where her father had happily lived for seven years.

“I was in shock. I didn't know what to say,” said Ms Clarke.

Until the COVID-19 lockdown, Ms Clarke said her dad – an alert father of seven, a former war veteran, and a stock and station agent – had been happy at Newmarch.

It had become his home and he made many friends. Despite her questions and calls about what would happen next, she heard little.

“We didn't have any more communication … even though I sent messages to say, ‘Well, what happens now?'”

Despite asking Newmarch staff whether they had told her father about his results, she got no reply.

"Do I tell dad? Do I not,” she asked.

“I didn't want to upset him, if he didn't know, he was by himself in a room. I didn't want to tell him why he was by himself.”

When Newmarch called to ask her to update her father’s end of life form, she asked if there was a reason.

She was told it was routine.

He died on April 19.

She told the royal commission that staff needed better training.

“I do not believe having a carer without a lot of training is appropriate, especially in this situation when the NSW government insists on having 'hospital in place' for the aged care facilities, then it needs to be a hospital ... the facility would need doctors and nurses, and all the equipment of a hospital,” she said

“Nobody actually told me what treatment dad was getting. I think that more communication, ringing up, giving a daily or even twice a day, ringing up in the morning and saying your dad slept well last night. He has had his medication, tell you how he went. If he is eating, what will be happening to him during that day and then at night ringing up and saying, you know, he is okay, he is going to bed.

“Just giving us more information about what was happening within the facility, because I didn't have access to any of that,” she said.

Anglicare's CEO Grant Millard said an aged care facility could not respond to a pandemic without help from commonwealth and state governments.

Yet there was strong disagreement with the government about how to manage the outbreak, including whether to hosptialise residents or treat them in the facility.

"The level of dysfunction or disagreement about issues was particularly intense over the first two weeks of the outbreak," Mr Millard.

Of the 313 Australian COVID-19 deaths reported as of Monday, Commonwealth data shows 220 were from an aged care facility. Of those, 189 were in Victoria

In contrast, six residents died at Dorothy Henderson Lodge, the first aged care facility to experience a COVID-19 outbreak. And 13 of the 16 positive cases were sent to hospital.

The commission heard on Monday that Dorothy Henderson Lodge had appointed two specialists in infection control within 24 hours of an outbreak, and the initial response was to move even those residents with mild symptoms to hospital. In contrast, there was a delay of nearly two weeks at Newmarch in getting infection control experts.