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A man in his 70s is now the second person at Rosewood Rest Home to die of coronavirus.
Public Health Director Dr. Caroline McElnay confirmed Saturday that a total of four people have died from Covid-19 in New Zealand, and two of those deaths are related to the Rosewood Rest Home.
The man who died Saturday had underlying health problems and more deaths by the nursing home group could not be ruled out, McElnay said.
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Twenty residents from the rest of the home were transferred to Burwood Hospital on Monday. As of Friday, six of them, including the two who died, had tested positive, seven were probable cases, and the remaining seven had no symptoms.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / THINGS
Twenty people from a dementia unit at Rosewood Rest Home have been transferred to isolation at Burwood Hospital.
There were now 30 cases linked to the nursing home group, confirmed Canterbury DHB chief executive David Meates. He acknowledged Saturday’s death with “great sadness.”
“We express our deepest condolences to the man’s family,” he said.
On Friday, a woman in her 90s became the first person in the rest of the home, and the second person in New Zealand, to die of coronavirus.
Her family was unable to be with her in the hospital due to level 4 alert restrictions, McElnay said, adding that hospital staff were able to provide comfort and support before she died Thursday morning.
The first person to die from the virus was West Coaster Anne Guenole, 70. He died at Gray Base Hospital in Greymouth on March 29.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / THINGS
Two ambulances were parked outside Rosewood Rest Home and Hospital on Monday, the day 20 residents were transferred to Burwood Hospital.
Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace said the deaths at Rosewood Rest Home showed the “tragic consequence of not having a comprehensive testing regimen for residents and their caregivers.”
“It is a tragedy waiting for it to happen,” he said.
He called all front-line senior care workers to be tested, regardless of whether they show symptoms.
On Saturday, CDHB Medical Director Dr. Sue Nightingale clarified that each Rosewood resident at Burwood Hospital was in a large room with a separate bathroom.
There were also designated spaces for staff to put on and take off PPE, he said.
“For those residents who are mobile, you have access to an outdoor garden, which some have been able to enjoy.”
Nightingale said the limitations of the Rosewood facility and staff concerns were “significant limitations” in providing best practice isolation.
“Relocating these vulnerable residents to Burwood was necessary and important to provide the space and facilities necessary to provide quality care,” he said.
Things He previously spoke to the son of an elderly Rosewood resident, who was transferred to Burwood, who criticized the CDHB and the nursing home administration for the lack of communication about his father’s condition.
On Friday, he said the first thing he knew about the woman’s death was through the media. Her family was now “much more concerned” because the woman had been in the same bubble as her father.
“More deaths from such a fragile and vulnerable group seem inevitable.”
Communication had been “seriously poor,” the man said, adding that “it would be so easy to communicate just a little bit.”
Things He has tried several times to get feedback from Rosewood, a private facility owned by Malcolm and Lynda Tucker. A woman at the rest home said Friday that all communications had to go through the CDHB.
The Health Ministry identified Rosewood on Monday as the location of the first group of 10 or more Covid-19 cases in Canterbury.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / THINGS
Of the 20 residents of the Rosewood Rest Home group, six, including the two deaths, tested positive, seven were probable cases, and the remaining seven showed no symptoms.
The first resident in the hospital-level dementia unit at the facility returned a positive test last Friday.
The 20 residents of the dementia unit, where all the infected residents resided, were moved to a room at Burwood Hospital on Monday to be isolated together.
Earlier this week, CDHB Chief Executive David Meates said they were keeping them together because it was highly likely they had already been exposed.
On Friday, just hours after Rosewood’s first death was confirmed, the CDHB announced that another 20 residents in the hospital care wing would be relocated to other rest homes due to difficulties in finding replacement staff.
Meates said families had been central to the decision-making behind where residents were relocated.
Twenty-four residents will remain in Rosewood.
