A Broken Hill aged care facility has gone into lockdown following a second positive case of COVID-19.
Aruma Lodge is closed to visitors for the foreseeable future, following confirmation one of the elderly residents has the virus.
The closure comes after a staff member contracted the virus late last week.
NSW Health has declared the nursing home a COVID hotspot; it only takes a single resident at an aged care facility testing positive to be deemed an outbreak.
The chief executive of Southern Cross Care Broken Hill, Zoe Tonkin. says it is important for residents, staff and family members not to panic.
"Our residents are currently isolated to their rooms, while we undergo PCR testing."
Ms Tonkin also revealed the person was symptomatic and feeling the effects of the virus.
"She's unwell, and we're monitoring her very, very closely," she said.
For the other two Southern Cross Care in Broken Hill sites the following visitor requirements are in place.
- All visitors to the home must be fully vaccinated
- All visitors to the home must wear a single-use TGA approved mask unless the person has a valid medical exemption; visitors under 12 are strongly encouraged to wear masks if practical. Other face coverings, such as cloth masks, bandana and scarves will not be accepted
- Visitors must not be unwell with any symptoms of acute respiratory infection, including fever above 37.5, history of fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose or shortness of breath
- Any person that has been instructed to isolate or quarantine are not permitted to visit
- Visitors must not have had contact with anyone known to have COVID-19, or reasonably suspected of having COVID-19, within the previous 14 days or been instructed to quarantine
There may be exemptions for visiting residents who are receiving end-of-life care — which will be decided by the chief executive.
"At the Aruma Lodge site ... for someone that was at terminal I'd definitely do what we needed to do to have family in with them," Ms Tonkin said.
"But currently with the positive case on site, the site is in complete lockdown nobody in nobody out," she said.
