Aged care workers are feeling a "collective shiver" after the first COVID-19 cases were detected in WA residential care, according to their union.
Two cases of COVID-19, a male resident in his 70s and a staff member, have been confirmed at Juniper's Cygnet Residential Aged Care facility in Bentley.
United Workers Union Secretary Carolyn Smith said it was not welcome news.
"I think there's sort of a collective shiver going through all aged care workers in West Australia hearing about this," she said.
"We only have to look over east to see what COVID has done in aged care facilities.
"I think many aged care workers, many residents, many families, are going to be concerned.
"We all hope that because we've had a couple more months to prepare that we're better ready to face the challenges of Omicron in aged care."
Lessons from the east over 'killer disease': union
Ms Smith said WA needed to look closely at what had been happening in the eastern states recently, rather than earlier in the pandemic when aged care homes were hit hard.
"What we've seen in recent months with Omicron in aged care is that it spreads really fast, it impacts the staffing, and whilst many people think that Omicron is more like a mild flu, it is unfortunately a killer disease in residential aged care," she said.
The COVID positive resident is in isolation and the facility is closed to all visitors.
Ms Smith said one of the issues in the east was the number of lockdowns there had been in residential aged care.
"Whilst we absolutely understand that in terms of protecting people from the virus, it has some pretty serious implications," she said.
"We know that residents that are locked down do worse in terms of their emotional and psychological health, but even their physical health because they're not getting to exercise and be out in the fresh air."
Concern over booster rollout
Juniper's CEO said the majority of residents and workers were triple vaccinated.
But Ms Smith said the union was concerned that across Australia, at least 25 per cent of residents were not triple vaccinated.
"What we know is that aged care residents are the most vulnerable cohort, to COVID and to Omicron in particular," she said.
"The booster is the best protection that vulnerable aged care residents can have.
"The original rolling out of the vaccination program in aged care was pretty slow and pretty disappointing and unfortunately the booster rollout has been disappointing as well."
Unclear how COVID got in: Juniper
Juniper chief executive Chris Hall said the facility was working closely with WA Health and the Commonwealth Department of Health to ensure the outbreak was contained, and to support contact tracing teams.
"All residents and staff at the home are undergoing COVID testing. The [state government] will advise the results of those as soon as they're confirmed," he told ABC Radio Perth.
"Once we have that understanding that'll help us in terms of working the plan moving forward. We're confident that we'll get on top of this very quickly."
Mr Hall said the elderly resident who had tested positive was in a good condition.
"He has been symptomatic, but he's actually doing really well from the reports that I've been receiving, which is great," he said.
"Our priority at this point is the safety and wellbeing of all of our residents, staff and volunteers."
One resident unvaccinated
Of the aged care home's 40 residents, Mr Hall said 38 had received their booster vaccination dose and one had received two doses, while arrangements were being made for one unvaccinated resident to get the jab.
While anxious about the possibility of a surge in cases, he said the nursing home was well prepared to handle the outbreak.
"Our staff are very experienced in dealing with infection prevention … particularly incidents of flu and virus outbreaks in our facilities," he said.
"We're implementing the same sort of management arrangements for dealing with this particular outbreak."
Mr Hall said along with extra safety measures, arrangements were also being made for alternative visitation while the facility was closed.
"[We] will enable visits either virtually by way of phone, or iPads … or in a safe and controlled way in person as soon as we possibly can," he said.
According to data from the federal Health Department, 90 to 100 per cent of staff at the facility were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, while between 0 and 9 per cent were partially vaccinated.
The same vaccination rate has been recorded for the wider Canning area encompassing the home, although some facilities have reported staff with a vaccine exemption.
Since November 17 last year, all residential aged care workers in WA have to be vaccinated or have an exemption to work.
Under the WA government’s booster mandate, that means they will need to have received a booster by March 17 to continue working.
It is not known how many staff have received a booster dose.
