Sadly, a resident in her 90s at St Anne’s Home contracted the disease during an outbreak at the facility.
Southern Cross Care Chief Executive Officer Zoe Tonkin said “Our staff are very, very sad and shaken by the death and our condolences go out to the family and their loved ones.”
Despite temperature checks, masks, and Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) available to visitors before entering the Home, COVID-19 still entered the facility.
A spokesperson from Far West Local Health District said the highly contagious second form of Omicron had reached Broken Hill in the last month.
During this period, it was reported to the Barrier Truth that people with COVID-19 were ignoring stay at home laws and were seen shopping and attending venues in Broken Hill.
Thus, both Omicron forms were circulating town in the last month, sadly being spread further by people diagnosed with COVID-19 not isolating.
COVID cases going down again
Broken Hill is back down to 659 active cases of COVID-19, according to the NSW Health map of RATs and PCR tests results.
Case numbers had reached the 900s in the past month.
Monday saw 111 new cases in the FWLHD, with 86 in Broken Hill, 21 in Wentworth Shire, 2 in the Central Darling Shire and 2 in Balranald Shire.
There have been 2,352 cases of COVID-19 in Broken Hill during the pandemic, with three people dying with COVID.
While the Omicron variants are considered mild forms of the disease, recent events in Broken Hill show that vulnerable people are still open to complications and death.
In NSW, there are 260,382 active COVID cases, of which 1,467 are admitted to hospital, 56 are in intensive care and 17 require ventilation.
This means there is one active case of COVID for every 31 people in NSW.
