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'Christmas in July' party sparked superspreader Covid event

A Christmas in July event at an aged care facility in Sydney's inner west is being described as a "superspreader" event, with 20 cases of Covid-19 now linked to the party.

Eighteen residents and two staff members at the Wyoming Residential Aged Care Facility in Summer Hill tested positive for Covid, while the two-storey building has been divided by the outbreak.

The residents on the top floor have been deemed close contacts and have also been moved to hospital, 7News reported.

“The ground floor residents are, at this point, considered to be in a different situation,” Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Monday.

“They didn’t happen to be exposed to the assistant in nursing that was employed by the private hospital and I understand that the actual numbers are believed to have occurred off a superspreading event that occurred in the aged care facility."

Mr Hazzard said a 'Christmas in July' event was linked to the virus spread in the facility where 10 of the 61 residents and one in every four workers were not vaccinated.

20 people have tested positive from the outbreak in the aged care facility. Source: Hardi Aged Care
20 people have tested positive from the outbreak in the aged care facility. Source: Hardi Aged Care

“Sometimes it is not a good idea to have a Christmas in July right in the middle of a pandemic but I do understand that it is an effort to try and provide entertainment and to support to residents and those things have to be decided by the aged care facilities,” the Health Minister said.

A spokesman for the nursing home told The Daily Telegraph the function was a "normal lunch" with a Christmas theme, "not a party".

NSW records over 200 cases for the third consecutive day

NSW has recorded 207 new local Covid-19 cases on Monday. Of these cases, 72 cases were in the community during part or all of their infectious period, with the infection status of another 46 cases unknown.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant reiterated that the focus was on achieving zero community transmission by the end of August, but noted the vast majority of the community was doing the right thing.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the main form of transmission remains workplaces and households.

“That is being consistent and that is what we are trying to break the back of moving forward,” she told reporters, adding that people aged between 20 and 40 will be "crucial" to vaccination success in NSW.

“Unlike the flu, with Covid it's people in their 20s, 30s and 40s that are most mobile, that are between two generations or within three generations that are causing both getting the virus and spreading the virus. It is really important for us to get people aged between that 20-40 age group vaccinated,” she said.

About 460,000 vaccinations were administered in NSW last week, meaning 41 per cent of the state's adult population is now at least partly vaccinated.

with AAP

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