Ballarat aged care facility Nazareth House has restricted visitors and is taking extra precautions after a close contact of a tier one site visited a relative on Tuesday afternoon.
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The person visited the relative on Tuesday afternoon and was screened by Nazareth House staff upon entry and was wearing a mask.
Later in the day, they were informed they had visited tier one exposure site Young and Jackson's in the Melbourne CBD during the exposure period.
That person then informed Nazareth House, which moved to restrict visitors and implement additional measures to prevent any potential transmission.
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Nazareth Care CEO David Cotter said the aged care provider had been in contact with the Department of Health and would be notified of the person's test result.
"That person was obviously tested yesterday afternoon and they will be notifying us as soon as the result comes in and we will reassess," he said.
"Clearly, if the result comes in negative, we will stand down any restrictions that we've implemented, and if the results are positive we will probably maintain them.
"It's not a full lockdown. Visitors, in particular circumstances, can continue to visit after discussions with the facility manager.
"Staff are wearing PPE in the particular area where the visitor visited, and we've had a deep clean in that area. The only residents whose movements are restricted are the people in the immediate area of the resident that was visited."
Mr Cotter said the fast response was a necessary precaution.
"The person visits on a Wednesday afternoon and we can't wait till Friday morning to respond because that would be 36 hours of potential transmission if the person was positive," he said.
"We're much more comfortable protecting our residents by responding now because we know the person visited a tier one, and then winding it back in the event that the person is negative, which is most likely."
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