Source: ABCNews
Victoria has reported three new locally acquired coronavirus cases, taking the state’s outbreak to 54 cases.
A total of nine local cases were recorded on Monday, which included six flagged by the government at its daily COVID-19 press conference yesterday.
The state recorded 42,699 test results and 20,484 vaccinations at state-run centres.
There are now 329 exposure sites, with the South Melbourne ALDI, the Woolworths at Heidelberg and a number of sites in Brimbank Shopping Centre added last night as Tier 1 sites.
The federal minister responsible for aged care says no new COVID cases have been recorded in aged care centres in Victoria.
Yesterday, one resident of Arcare Maidstone was confirmed to have contracted the virus, while a second resident was a suspected case.
Two staff members have also tested positive for the virus.
Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck has told Senate Estimates that the second resident has now been cleared of the virus.
“I’ve since confirmed that the second person who was re-tested because of the nature of that indeterminate test result has tested negative, and so that’s the current circumstances as it stands now,” he said.
Aged care under the spotlight after cases emerged this week
The Health Workers Union has claimed aged care providers in Victoria are pressuring their staff to come into work when they should be isolating.
The claim comes after Arcare Maidstone reported two staff members and a resident had tested positive for COVID-19.
The union’s Diana Asmar said there had been multiple reports of workers being asked to go into work at centres when they should be home awaiting a COVID test result.
“The actual managers of the facilities are calling the workers and telling them, ‘No, we want you to come to work’,” she said.
“We’ve been having many, many calls from the workers, some of them have actually gone home to isolate for 14 days but the managers are telling them, ‘It’s OK, don’t worry about it, please come to work because we’re short of staff’.”
In a statement, Arcare CEO Colin Singh said this was not happening at the Maidstone facility.
“The manager is fully supportive of all measures being put in place to protect team members and is not pressuring anyone to work,” he said.
“All team members are being paid while self-isolating and it does not impact their annual leave entitlements.”
Meanwhile, the daughter of a resident at Arcare Maidstone says she’s comfortable with the centre’s handling of the situation.
Peta Soorkia’s said she had managed to stay in touch with her mother, Mary Delilah, over video calls while the centre remained in lockdown.
“She’s in good spirits,” Ms Soorkia told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“I talk to her each day and my sister does each day and we do a Zoom when we can … the staff are very good at making sure all that happens.”
Ms Soorkia said she wanted to see the vaccination rollout accelerate now to protect the most vulnerable people.
