Stay at home? No worries
A family who home school their children have had little difficulty adapting to the Covid 19 lockdown.
Aresident with dementia in a Napier rest home has tested positive to coronavirus. Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield confirmed there were 85 new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand on Friday, four of which were in Hawke’s Bay, bringing the region’s total to 10.
A total of 76 confirmed and nine probable cases make up Friday’s new cases nationally.
The Hawke’s Bay DHB said a probable case of Covid-19 at Gladys Mary Care Home, Tamatea, had been confirmed.
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s Medical Officer of Health Nick Jones said: “This resident is now in isolation and infection prevention and public health teams have been working closely with Gladys Mary Care Home, which is closed to all visitors.
“The home has put all appropriate measures in place to help protect its residents and staff.”
It is known that the rest home was visited by somebody with a confirmed case of Covid-19 while symptomatic between March 17 and 20.
Bupa Villages and Aged Care New Zealand managing director Carolyn Cooper said the resident is a member of a 14-person dementia community.
To ensure the safety of our residents and staff, the 14-person community was placed into immediate isolation prior to the positive test result.
“Additional infection prevention control measures were immediately put in place, including additional restrictions, equipment and hygiene measures,” Cooper said.
Following the positive test result, Cooper also said they’d been in contact with the impacted resident’s family and the group’s wider care home residents and their families.
The rest home has been shut to all visitors since Tuesday.
Cooper said they were still establishing which staff members had close contact with the resident.
All staff who had close contact with the resident were asked to go into self-isolation for 14 days from the time of their last contact with them, while any staff who had casual contact with the resident have been permitted to continue work by Public Health.
Cooper also said that the staff are committed to continuing to care for residents.
“Our team will be using personal protective equipment, including gowns, masks and gloves where required,” she said.
“We are maintaining our strict infection prevention control protocols, including no visitor access, hand hygiene and physical distancing across all of our sites.”
Cooper added: “No other Bupa site is affected by this probable case.”
New Zealand Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace said this is a very challenging time for residents, families and staff, “particularly for residents who have dementia”.
“All our members are doing everything they possibly can to care for and ease the situation for residents in self-isolation, and for all residents, within the required Ministry of Health Covid-19 protocols,” he said.
“Something we can and are doing is supporting all our residents where possible to use technology to stay connected with their loved ones.”
Hawke’s Bay’s first case of coronavirus was confirmed last Friday, March 20.
The number of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand is 368.
Jones said the other three new cases in Hawke’s Bay were residents who had returned from overseas and were recovering.