It’s believed that a Christmas in July event is to blame for a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing home in Sydney’s Inner West, with authorities branding the party a Delta “superspreader event”.
So far 18 residents and two staff members at the Wyoming Nursing Home in Summer Hill have tested positive for COVID-19.
By the end of Monday, it’s expected just over half of the nursing home’s residents (including people who haven’t necessarily tested positive) will be in hospital as a precaution.
“I understand that the actual numbers are believed to have occurred at a superspreading event that occurred in the aged care facility,” NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said at the daily coronavirus press conference on Monday.
“Sometimes it is not a good idea to have a Christmas in July right in the middle of a pandemic but I do understand that it is an effort to try and provide entertainment and to support to residents and those things have to be decided by the aged care facilities.”
However, the nursing home has hit back, claiming that the event was just a regular mealtime that had been jazzed up with some Christmas decorations.
“To clarify, a normal lunch was held for our residents but with Christmas decorations and some carols played to them on our speaker,” the Wyoming Nursing Home said in a statement.
What’s more worrying than whether or not a Christmas in July party happened during lockdown is the fact that not everyone at the facility has been vaccinated yet.
Hazzard noted that 10 of the facility’s 61 residents denied the jab in the past for various reasons, including medical reasons.
On top of that, only around three quarters of the nursing home’s staff members had been vaccinated, and health authorities are now once again offering the jab to those workers who reportedly denied it the first time around.
The nurse who first tested positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday had only had their first dose of a vaccine and were asymptomatic at the time.
It’s probably a bit late now that July’s over, but let this be a lesson not to celebrate a wintery fake Christmas while there’s a COVID outbreak happening.
Another more salient lesson is to get fully vaxxed ASAP, just in case you happen to get caught up in a superspreader event.
All adult Aussies (yep, even if those of us under 40) are currently able to get the safe and effective AstraZeneca vaccine through a GP. Talk to a doctor to see if it’s right for you.
Alternatively, you can triple-check to see if you’re eligible for the Pfizer vaccine here.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
