Systematic testing is under way after two patients in a shared room returned positives for COVID-19 at Canberra Hospital.
ACT Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer says “this sort of incident” is not new.
“It has occurred more than 20 times in our healthcare facilities and we are prepared for it,” he told reporters on Saturday.
However, it wasn’t known for how long the patients had been infectious and contact tracers were also endeavouring to find anyone outside the hospital who may have visited or interacted with them.
Both patients have been moved to a designated COVID ward since being diagnosed on Friday.
The ACT added an additional 32 locally acquired infections to its caseload on Saturday, the number equalling the largest daily increase since its latest outbreak began.
At least two dozen of the cases were infectious while circulating in the community, while seven were in quarantine. Twenty-six were linked to previous cases.
As of Saturday, the territory had 233 active cases with 492 patients having recovered. Ten remained in Canberra hospitals, four of them in intensive care and three requiring ventilation.
Authorities said more than 2600 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to Friday evening, while almost 85 per cent of ACT residents had received a first vaccine dose and 58 per cent had been administered with two shots.
Nine patient cases also emerged at a Canberra aged care home on Saturday after two fully-vaccinated workers tested positive.
“What we know is that of the staff at the Calvary Haydon Retirement Community, 100 per cent have received their first dose and 53 per cent are fully vaccinated,” Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said.
“In this way, we are very assured that the progress of this outbreak will be very different to what we saw last year when we were all very nervous about aged care facilities.”
The initial infection of the workers happened despite them being double-dosed and wearing appropriate protective equipment.
Across the ACT’s aged care sector, about 87 per cent of staff are fully vaccinated while more than 99 per cent have received at least one dose.
AAP
