Covirus 19 coronavirus: the origin of the Rosewood Resthome cluster changed to ‘unknown’, not ‘foreign exposure’

Investigations into how a deadly outbreak of coronavirus began in a Christchurch nursing home are ongoing, and the suggestion for “exposure abroad” was that the source has been removed from the Ministry of Health website.

Health authorities announced yesterday that a 90-year-old woman who lived at Rosewood Resthome and Hospital in Linwood had died at Burwood Hospital after contracting the virus. She had underlying health conditions.

The ministry’s website listed the group’s origin as “overseas exposure,” but last night Canterbury DHB told the Herald that the information was incorrect and had changed to “unknown.”

The DHB previously said it was highly likely that a staff member had introduced the virus into the unit, given the strict visiting restrictions under alert level 4 of the national blockade.

The deceased resident, the second coronavirus-related death in New Zealand, was transferred last Monday with 19 other residents to Burwood Hospital, to isolate himself and try to stop the spread of the virus to those found in other wings of the rest of the home.

Canterbury DHB Executive Director David Meates has now authorized more residents to move in, after failing to find replacement workers for the large number of staff now in isolation.

Twenty residents will move to other senior care centers that provide hospital-level care in the coming week. That will leave 24 residents in Rosewood, undergoing a thorough cleaning.

“We know this is detrimental to both residents and their whānau, but in current circumstances it is the safest option, while we cannot find the right staff to work at Rosewood to provide care for this vulnerable group of older people,” Meates said.

Meates also named an interim manager for the rest home, saying this was because the facility manager was in isolation, as were the rest of the staff.

The first Rosewood case was confirmed on April 3, and there are now 28. This number includes 15 employees (5 confirmed and 10 probable) and 13 residents (6 confirmed, 7 probable).

The groups have increasingly become the center of the New Zealand coronavirus epidemic, overtaking transmission abroad as the main source of the virus. The Ministry of Health defines a group as a group of Covid-19 cases linked because the infected were in the same place.