Vaccinated care home residents have tested positive

AT LEAST five elderly residents and staff working at the HSE’s largest care home have tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus, it has been claimed.

And according to an insider at St Mary’s Hospital in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, the first of these cases was diagnosed during the past two weeks.

Health authority officials refused to give any details this weekend about the worrying Covid outbreak among fully vaccinated residents and staff despite the long-standing practice of doing so since the pandemic began last year.

An insider at the care home – which was at the centre of one of the largest and most controversial Covid outbreaks involving elderly people last year – revealed: ‘The first case was discovered about two weeks ago and since then five people have tested positive.

‘The five include elderly residents and also some staff who were caring for those residents who tested positive.

‘All of these residents and staff are fully vaccinated. They have been isolated in a separate ward and thankfully none of them are seriously ill. None of the staff who tested positive are serious either.’

However, last night the Health Service Executive refused to comment on the most recent outbreak of Covid at the hospital.

A spokeswoman for the HSE’s

Community Healthcare Organisation Dublin North City and County section explained: ‘Maintaining confidentiality is not only an ethical requirement for the HSE, it is also a legal requirement.’

In April of last year, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed how elderly residents showing symptoms of Covid-19 were cared for in an open ward with known

Covid-19 patients at the HSE’s largest care home.

And they were only moved and isolated from one another after it emerged that 11 pensioners had died from the highly infectious condition.

The 200-bed St Mary’s Hospital in Dublin’s Phoenix Park is the HSE’s largest care centre for elderly people.