Several aged care homes in the North and North-West have ended their lockdowns following COVID cases earlier this month, while one has suggested the initial lack of rapid antigen tests caused unnecessary stress for residents.
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More than 30 Tasmanian facilities were believed to have been impacted by cases among either staff or residents, but those affected have started to receive bulk RAT kits to enable regular testing.
Grenoch and Kanangra homes at Deloraine are no longer in lockdown after they were able to source their own RAT kits and carry out widespread testing, determining that COVID had not spread from its single case among staff.
Centres chief executive officer Nadine Ozols said the lack of access to testing had been "unfortunate" and resulted in a stressful situation that could have been avoided.
"It would have been better for everyone's mental health to have had access to that testing earlier in the week. It would have allowed us to ease back some of the restrictions to have a lesser impact on residents and families," she said.
"We had to do our own contact tracing, then tested those staff who we determined as moderate-medium risk.
"We had to source our own RAT tests to make that happen."
The facility put in place its outbreak plan, but was later told by Public Health it was only an "exposure" rather than an outbreak after guidelines changed.
Regis Tasmania at Norwood reported positive cases among nine residents and seven staff members, but has now been able to end its "outbreak management plan" period.
A spokesperson said they were "very grateful" for the support from the Commonwealth Health Department and Tasmanian Public Health during the past few weeks.
Meercroft Care at Devonport was close to finishing lockdown on the weekend after a resident no longer tested positive, but a second resident then reported a positive rapid antigen test on Sunday. The centre is waiting on confirmation via a PCR test, with the resident asymptomatic.
Chief executive officer Wendy Shearer said they had received RAT kits from the government, as well as sourcing more themselves, which would enable widespread testing.
"We're able to test every single staff member that comes on shift, before their shift starts," she said.
"Our testing has been quite quick since our positive case, but it took time to get the results. But there have been a lot of homes in lockdown and the pressure on (testing provider) Sonic has been great."
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Respect Aged Care's homes - Eliza Purton at West Ulverstone and Coroneagh Park at Penguin - have ended their lockdowns after rapid antigen tests among staff and residents came back negative.
"The reason this was achieved is as a result of the fantastic effort by the staff and residents in complying with the infection control measures to prevent further spread of COVID- 19," a Respect statement read.
"All of our residents remained asymptomatic and well and this is due to the high level of vaccination of our residents."
OneCare's aged care homes on the North-West Coast - Rubicon Grove at Port Sorell and Umina Park at Burnie - are both still in lockdown.
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