11 residents and 3 staff members of the RFBI Hawkins Masonic Village aged care home at Edgeworth have tested positive for COVID-19.
In a statement to NBN News, the facility says four residents had been identified on August 9 as having mild cold symptoms.
“On Monday 9 August, RFBI was advised that a member of our RFBI Hawkins Masonic Village had tested positive for Covid-19. The staff member had last worked in the Village on Wednesday 4 August and became ill on Friday. He was tested on Sunday.
All residents who have tested positive reside in Acacia House and all bar one of the residents are fully vaccinated. I am pleased to confirm that all residents are doing well, however as a precaution all residents who have tested positive are being transferred to John Hunter Hospital.
Our staff who have tested positive are also doing well and self isolation. We are checking in with them daily.
It is not yet known when or where the additional staff members contracted the disease. Health authorities are working with them to identify close contacts who need to self-isolate. These staff members have been working regularly in the Village until the 9 August when they entered self-isolation and, sadly, we are expecting to see further staff and residents infected.
Unrelated to the outbreak in our residential care village, we were also notified this morning that one of our Care at Home workers and two clients, who are residents within our RFBI Hawkins Masonic Retirement Village, have been identified as close contacts of a community case. All of them are self-isolating as per health rules and are doing well.
Our team has responded well to this challenge and I am grateful for the support from our families. We will be maintaining daily contact with all of our families to keep them informed as to what is happening in the village and up to date with how their resident is doing.”
