A NSW aged care resident who recently battled Covid, has just celebrated her 105th birthday.
May Harrison, who is thought to be Australia’s oldest Covid survivor, hit the milestone birthday, surrounded by family and friends.
“I was very sick and when I came out of it, I was very weak, but I got over it,” she told the ABC. “We were to have had a bigger [party] on the Sydney Harbour but they didn’t think I was strong enough.
“But I love my parties.”
Ms Harrison is one of nearly 46,000 aged care residents in Australia who have so far had Covid. That is despite regulations put in place to protect this vulnerable cohort.
And as the country returns to ‘normal’ as we “learn to live with Covid”, the numbers of those instead dying with Covid have been steadily rising this year.
May is one of the nearly 46,000 Australian aged care residents who have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
And although the daily press conferences are long gone — and, for many people, life has returned to something much closer to normal — COVID-19 cases in Australia remain at around 45,000 per day.
Experts are warning that COVID-19 still “has tricks up its sleeve” with reinfections rising and new strains emerging.
Aged care under COVID strain
Last week, there were more 780 active outbreaks in aged care facilities and the sector is under pressure.
Whiddon Aged Care runs 20 centres across NSW and Queensland, including the facility where May lives in south-west Sydney.
Its chief executive, Chris Mamarelis, said the company had strict health and safety practices on site, but the high community transmission across the country meant the impact of COVID-19 was still a threat.
“All of our homes are being impacted by COVID,” he said.
But high vaccinations and strong infection management have helped keep things relatively under control, he added.
Mr Mamarelis said the high case numbers were taking a devastating toll on the aged care workforce — and he was worried about reinfection.
“We’re seeing a lot of staff that are having to isolate who are contracting COVID,” he said.
“We’re not finding the backup — they’re just not there. So there’s immense pressure [particularly] in those regional locations where team members are working 12-hour shifts.”
Outside of aged care, large numbers of people continue to contract the virus in the wider community.