“History repeating itself”: Relatives of COVID-19 victims call out government
Relatives of aged care residents who died during Victoria’s second coronavirus outbreak are reliving their trauma as they watch “history repeat itself in the state’s latest outbreak.
Kathy Bourinaris’ 77-year-old mother, Fotini Atzarakis, died from COVID-19 in 2020 just two weeks after moving into St Basil’s Homes for the Aged, where the virus was spreading at the time.
“This shouldn’t be happening. I can’t believe they still haven’t got it right,” Kathy said on Monday night.
After the state’s snap lockdown on Friday, three staff members who worked at two nursing homes tested positive to the virus, along with a 99-year-old resident from Arcare Maidstone aged care who has since been transferred to hospital.
Genomic testing has found that one of the ‘mystery case’ aged care workers is linked to the hotel quarantine outbreak in South Australia and tested positive despite receiving her first dose of the vaccine.
One of the other workers had also worked at BlueCross Western Gardens in Sunshine, Victoria, and both facilities have since been locked down while all staff and residents are tested.
“I can’t believe what’s happening, it’s bringing me back to what happened last year,” Kathy said in a plea to the government to do more to stem the spread.
“It’s been over a year now and we’re back to where we started.
“What we went through last year as a family, you could not even imagine and I wish it upon absolutely nobody,” she said tearfully.
“It’s one thing to lose your loved one, but to lose my mum the way we did, I can’t explain, it was living hell.”
Evagelia Takis, a healthcare worker, is also struggling with the latest outbreak in her state following the passing of her elderly father at St Basil’s aged care facility last year.
“To be honest I feel bitter watching history repeating itself,” she said on Tuesday.
“This is not what we want to see and you’d think by now after a fourth lockdown and how many aged care residents passed away last year, we would have learnt and found out or found a better alternative to prevent this from happening again.”
Of particular concern was the revelation that aged care workers were working at multiple facilities, prompting the news to spread that the federal government had overturned a rule in November that prevented staff from working at multiple facilities to curb future outbreaks.
“Aged care residents need to be prevented from this situation because they’re the most vulnerable, we need to take care of our elderly residents and advocate for them,” Evagelia continued.
The Victorian government has since reinstated the single-site working rule.
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