Melbourne hotel quarantine security guard lived with an aged care worker before coronavirus spread into a nursing home
- Hotel security guard lived with an aged care worker, passing on virus in June
- Link pinpointed by genomics only infected two people at Embracia aged care
- Inquiry probing disastrous hire of private security firms for quarantine policing
- Victoria now has 1,251 active infections of which 625 are linked to aged care
- 716 people killed so far of which more than 550 were elderly
Victoria's health department has discovered how a hotel quarantine security guard spread the coronavirus to an aged care home.
A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) report tendered to Victoria's Hotel Quarantine Inquiry has linked a case associated with an Embracia Aged Care facility genomically to the Rydges hotel on Swanston St.
A formal link has been pinpointed to a female security guard at Rydges hotel who shared a home with an aged care worker at Embracia, The Age reported.
Pictured: Embracia Aged Care Home, Reservoir. A security guard from Rydges shared a home with an Embracia aged care worker who took the virus to Reservoir, infecting two others
An elderly patient is removed from an aged care facility in Melbourne on July 31
This link only relates to two cases at the Embracia Reservoir aged care facility.
Victoria's horror outbreak has so far killed 716 people, of which more than 550 were elderly, as the virus ripped through aged care homes.
The state recorded 37 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday to bring the total to 19,800 of which 1,251 are active infections.
Of those now sick, 625 active cases are related to aged care facilities, the DHHS said on Saturday, which is down from 861 a week ago.
Victoria's second wave began in May when, instead of assigning Victoria Police to secure hotel quarantine, the Andrews Government instead hired private security firms.
A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) report tendered to Victoria's Hotel Quarantine Inquiry has linked a case associated with Embracia Aged Care facility genomically to the Rydges hotel on Swanston St. Pictured: Rydges on July 14
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A medical worker enters an aged care facility on July 30. Victoria's health department has found how one hotel quarantine security guard spread the coronavirus to an aged care home
Private security guards spread the coronavirus into the community after working at the Swanston St Rydges in Carlton and the Stamford Plaza in the CBD.
The DHHS report found that a Rydges security guard lived with an Embracia staff member who worked at the aged care facility in Reservoir, in Melbourne's northern suburbs, and passed on the virus in June, leading to two cases there.
The staff member did not work at Embracia's other care home in Avondale Heights, Moonee Valley, where a major outbreak killed five and infected 46 people connected to the centre.
The Moonee Valley outbreak spread from the Menarock aged care home in Essendon where seven died and 68 people contracted the virus.
Last month, the inquiry heard how 90 per cent of cases in the second outbreak can be traced to a family who moved into the Rydges on Swanston hotel on May 15 after displaying coronavirus symptoms
Embracia managing director Sarah McKenzie said contact tracing by DHHS had often contained wrong information, including an attempt to trace a resident who died before the pandemic even started.
When a coronavirus case was identified, elderly residents had to isolate in their rooms for long periods and that even when residents at the Moonee Valley centre had tested negative 10 times, they still weren’t allowed out.
Ms McKenzie said some residents spent more than 40 days without symptoms, in their rooms alone.
Victoria's Hotel Quarantine Inquiry is probing the decision to hire private security firms instead of using the police or military.
Last month, the inquiry heard how 90 per cent of cases in the second outbreak can be traced to a family who moved into the Rydges on Swanston hotel on May 15 after displaying coronavirus symptoms.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton will face the inquiry this coming week along with police chief Shane Patton and Emergency Management Victoria Commissioner Andrew Crisp.
