21 January 2022

Dear Resident, Families and Friends,

I am pleased to inform you that today the Western Public Health Unit has advised that the Footscray Home exposure restriction has been lifted.

This means that:

• Residents will no longer require isolating in their rooms and encouraged to move around in their particular zoned areas of the Home.
• Residents may attend off-site appointments where necessary, adhering to COVID-19 safe practices.
• New fully vaccinated residents may be admitted.  They will be tested for COVID with a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) upon admission.

We will continue to monitor residents’ health and wellbeing closely.  Staff will remain wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in line with Government Directives.  Social distancing, hand hygiene, and normal infection control cleaning regimes will also continue.

As we enter our third year of the responding to this pandemic there continues to be an extremely high COVID activity in the community.  We find ourselves having to revise some of our operational practices and make provisions to return our Home to latest COVID-19 safe practices to minimise any further exposures.

We will continue to assess, review and respond according to the information and advice that we have at any particular time.  This means that we may need to quickly re-activate our response to potential exposures at very short notice.  As disappointing and frustrating as this is, our priority remains to safeguard our Homes as best we can.

We understand that you will be keen to reconnect with your loved ones and ask for your patience.   All visitors will need to be fully vaccinated and show they have a negative RAT result upon admission. They will be asked to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and need to follow any other instructions given by staff.  Doutta Galla encourages you and your families to get the booster as soon as you’re eligible.

We need to take these steps to safely open and to facilitate visits.

If you have any questions, you can call the Footscray Home directly on 03 9687 6744 or you can email us at covid19questions@dgas.org.au

Thank you for your ongoing support and understanding during this challenging time.

Yours sincerely,

Vanda Iaconese

CEO