Report reveals how

Staff members and visitors were responsible for the transmission of coronavirus in aged care facilities, a report has revealed.

The report, released yesterday, was commissioned by the director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, in April to learn from clusters of Covid-19 in aged residential care (ARC) facilities, so New Zealand can be better placed to manager further occurrences.

The independent review looked at five aged-care facilities – in Christchurch, Auckland and Waikato – which were known to have clusters of the virus, as well as other facilities that were largely unaffected.

The panel report confirmed the infections were introduced to the facilities by staff or visitors.

By May 24, the five ARC clusters had been associated with 153 cases, out of a total of 1504 national cases.

A total of 39 residents were infected, along with 78 health care workers and 36 others associated with health care workers or their close associates.

The five clusters in the agedcare facilities were identified by April 10.

The onset dates of the outbreak clusters ranged from March 11 until March 28, which coincided with the peak in national notifications.

According to the New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA), out of more than 36,000 residents in 650-plus facilities around the country, 39 were affected by coronavirus and 16 residents died.

The report found that all initial infections came from outside the facilities, and two were associated with overseas travel. Data showed that three out of the five facilities had staff cases first before residents got infected.