Three Sydney aged care residents among 16 new local cases of COVID-19 - Sydney Morning Herald

Three residents of an aged care home in Sydney’s north-west have tested positive to COVID-19 after a worker contracted the virus. They are among 16 local cases reported on Sunday, 13 of whom were in isolation during their infectious period.

It brings the tally for the present outbreak to 277 cases.

The SummitCare facility at Baulkham Hills went into lockdown as two of the residents were transferred to Westmead Hospital as a precautionary measure on Saturday night.

SummitCare Baulkham Hills.Credit:Facebook

The third resident was being transported to hospital on Sunday afternoon. All three were fully vaccinated and were not showing any symptoms.

The number of exposure sites in Sydney passed 300 on Sunday, as cafes, and train routes were added to NSW Health’s venue list.

Several new exposure sites were published on Sunday evening, including a handful of supermarkets and many public transport services.

The Coles at Pacific Square, Maroubra was listed as a close contact venue for specific times on both Monday, June 28 (7.10am-8.20am) and Tuesday evening (11pm-11.45pm).

The Woolworths at South Point Shopping Centre in Hillsdale was also listed as a close contact venue for Wednesday, June 30 (9.30am-6.30pm) and Thursday, July 1 (9am-6pm).

Several bus routes servicing Strathfield, Homebush and Lakemba were included as places of close contact. The routes include the M90, the 526 and the 450 between June 27 and June 30.

Other close contact venues include a Commonwealth Bank branch in Roselands on June 28, 29 and 30.

Casual contact venues include the TAB in Gladesville on Saturday, June 26 and Randwick Coles on Belmore Rd on June 28.

All passengers on flight VA524 between the Gold Coast and Sydney on June 26 have also been classified as close contacts.

Police fined more than 80 people in 24 hours across NSW for failing to comply with public health orders, including three Sydneysiders who were found in the Central West town of Dunedoo.

Two men and a woman were fined $1000 by NSW Police on Saturday after officers found their unregistered car parked in a ‘no stopping’ zone in Dunedoo, north-west of Dubbo, where they had booked one night in a local hotel.

NSW Police fined more than 50 people for failing to wear masks, while also booking a carload of Maroubra locals near Little Hartley. The group of four were sent back to Sydney after being pulled over on the Great Western Highway.

Two-thirds of staff at nursing home unvaccinated

SummitCare chief operating officer Michelle Sloane said the residents were “all very comfortable” and those within the facility were isolating in their rooms.

Ms Sloane said 96 per cent of the facility’s 149 residents had received both Pfizer jabs.

About one-third of staff had been vaccinated. She believed one of the workers who had the virus was vaccinated.

“We have made a decision with public health that they will be vaccinating staff towards the end of this outbreak,” Ms Sloane said.

“We have been advised that to do it now it might be of no benefit to everyone and, if anything, it will mean they suffer from side effects from the vaccine and we lose more staff.”

About 70 per cent of staff were in home isolation. The aged care worker who is believed to be unvaccinated was linked to a case in an unvaccinated 24-year-old student nurse who health authorities announced last Wednesday.

More than 45,000 tests were reported on Sunday.

Police patrol at Gore Hill Oval in St Leonards on Saturday.Credit:Brook Mitchell

“We are seeing numbers go the right way,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday. “But I do say cautiously that, that could still bounce around. And we’ve seen in the last few days how easy it is for people to unintentionally do the wrong thing, or intentionally do the wrong thing, and that can result in more cases, which is something we don’t want to see. Compliance is really important the next few days.”

The state’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said she would not like to speculate on whether schools would reopen after the holidays next week.

When asked about how children would figure into the vaccine rollout - no vaccine is approved for use in Australia for children under 16 - she was positive. A number of cases in the outbreak have been primary schoolchildren.

“I would be expecting that in 2022 we would be looking at rolling out vaccines for schoolchildren,” Dr Chant said. “At the moment, vaccine is still constrained, and as that vaccine becomes available, we still need to prioritise the elderly, aged care workers, and those with underlying health conditions before we move ahead to the younger age group.”

Ms Berejiklian said there had been no decision yet whether lockdown would be extended past July 9.

“Whilst the results overnight are very pleasing, there’s no doubt the impact of the lockdown has been evidenced,” the Premier said.

“However, to keep that trend going, we need to make sure people don’t give in and don’t break those rules we’ve put in place. They’re there for a reason.”

Victoria recorded no new local cases and one new case in hotel quarantine on Sunday.

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Three Sydney aged care residents among 16 new local cases of COVID-19 - Sydney Morning Herald
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