Former NBA player wrongly claims elderly are trapped in nursing homes during COVID-19 outbreaks

^{By Ewa Staszewska}

Former Australian NBA player Andrew Bogut has used multiple social media platforms to claim that just one positive case of COVID-19 can force residents of an aged care home into a 14-day lockdown without any right to leave or receive visitors.

But his claims are unfounded.

In a video that was posted on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on May 9, Bogut claimed that elderly people in nursing homes (also known as residential aged care facilities) were forced into a two-week lockdown if a resident or worker tested positive for COVID-19.

He said once a facility was locked down, residents could not receive visitors or leave the premises. He also said that a subsequent infection during the lockdown period triggered a further 14-day lockdown, leaving residents in a perpetual cycle of isolation.

The Communicable Disease Network of Australia (CDNA) provides national guidelines for managing COVID-19 in residential care facilities, which includes the number of cases required to declare an outbreak and subsequent lockdown.

The CDNA defines a residential aged care facility COVID-19 outbreak as having a minimum of two residents diagnosed with COVID-19 or at least five staff members or visitors being diagnosed within seven days of visiting the facility.

Experts consulted by RMIT FactLab said that once an outbreak is declared, residential aged care facilities follow public health orders provided by their relevant state health department around quarantine periods.

The current general isolation period of seven days is uniform across all Australian states and territories.  However, different jurisdictions have different approaches to managing outbreaks in residential care homes, ranging between seven and 10 days of isolation.

Vasi Naganthan, Sydney University Professor and consultant geriatrician, said claims that residents were locked down in their rooms for 14 days were “not true”.

He told RMIT FactLab that most jurisdictions required two COVID-positive residents to trigger a lockdown and that lockdown times were typically seven to 10 days depending on risk assessments.

“We will vary lockdown time period depending on risk assessment. 7-10 days,” he wrote in an email.  “We are not locking down for 14 days.”

According to a checklist by the Department of Health, the first 24 hours in an outbreak are used to isolate residents, assess who has been infected, test residents and “minimise the spread of the virus”.

Hal Swerissen, La Trobe University emeritus professor and a visiting fellow at the Grattan Institute, told FactLab that entire facilities did not need to lockdown as a result of an infection. In some cases, the lockdown of a wing of a facility might be sufficient to manage the disease.

There could also be instances where residents were under tight lockdown provisions because of staffing issues and a high number of COVID-19 cases in aged care, he said.

Professor Swerissen said the claim that residents were not allowed visitors was incorrect. “It’s a more nuanced and flexible set of arrangements. The person with COVID is isolated while other residents can get visitors,” he said. 

The Commonwealth Department of Health’s latest national snapshot, shows that as at May 19 there were 6,424 active COVID-19 cases in 825 outbreaks in residential aged care facilities.

There are approximately 2,700 facilities that provide residential care across Australia which means about 30 per cent are currently managing an outbreak and different periods of isolation.

An Industry Code for Visiting in Aged Care states that residents are allowed to have at least one visitor, even during outbreaks. Homes allow one visitor at a time on compassionate and urgent emotional support grounds, usually requiring the visitor to be fully vaccinated and to wear full PPE.

Joseph Ibrahim, head of Monash University's Health Law and Ageing Research Unit, said there’s been significant change since the start of the pandemic.

Families could take residents home under the Emergency Leave provision, which protected their place in the facility and suspended their fees for the duration of the leave, he said.