Stories continue to emerge out of Victoria’s aged care sector while the biggest outbreak in the state continues.

St Basil’s Aged care facility in Fawkner, home to many Greek-Australian elders, has been the worst hit, with more than 130 cases linked to the residence and at least 16 deaths.

The outbreak at the Fawkner home has been so severe, that the industry regulator has threatened to revoke its licence, and relatives of the dead and the ill are furious at the lack of communication during this crisis.

On Friday, the Fawkner home was fully evacuated, after six staff brought in to help manage the outbreak were infected in recent days. The next day, reports surfaced, that some evacuated residents were “malnourished and dehydrated” while others arrived at hospitals in soiled clothes and semi-conscious.

Ellen Grouios: ‘My mother was dehydrated and non-verbal’

Ellen Grouios’ 80-year-old mother, Dimitra Elias, has been a resident of  St. Basil’s Aged care facility in Fawkner, for two years.

On Thursday afternoon, she was tested positive for COVID-19 and later that night she was transferred to Northern Hospital.

“One of the new doctors who are in the facility notified me, on Thursday afternoon, that mum was unfortunately COVID positive and she was dehydrated, she was non-verbal, she had high blood sugar levels and she had a fever. It was an emergency,” Mrs Grouios told The Greek Herald, explaining that her mother who’s also diabetic, spent at least 15 hours in the hospital’s Emergency Department before she was taken to her bed.

“I spoke to a doctor on Friday and they said to me that they cannot make frequent contact because there are so many COVID positive patients there and we can’t go there either,” she said.

The last time Mrs Grouios spoke to her mother was a week ago, after the federal health department moved in to help the aged care facility. It was then, that Mrs Ilias told her daughter that she “doesn’t want the nurses to touch her” and that they bring her only “coffee, toast and meze [small portions of food]”.

“We didn’t even get a phone call or email from Saint Basil’s or a formal notification about the situation. We found out from the newspaper. They are liable and they are negligent for their lack of communication with families of vulnerable elderly people and their [lack of] duty of care.

“The Director of St Basil’s, Kon Kontis, sent the most unempathetic letter to the families last week and following that they sent everyone the accounts to pay,” Mrs Grouios said.

However, in a letter that was sent to the families on July 30 -more than a week after the invoices were mailed out and The Greek Herald has in its possession, St Basil’s management apologised for the mistake and explain that they “overlooked stopping the accounts from being sent out” because of the order to vacate.

In the same letter it is also stated that the home will not charge any daily fees from Wednesday 22 July to 6 August, when the normal staff is expected to return to the home and until the residents return, the expenses of the residents at the private hospitals are being met by the Commonwealth Government and that the Archdiocese has agreed to waive all church and priest related expenses for the funerals.

Peter Valkanidis: ‘I hope my mother wasn’t experiencing neglect’

Peter Valkanidis’ mother, Malama Valkanidis, 84, a resident of St Basil’s high care dementia ward, was transferred to Knox Hospital last week, after testing positive for COVID-19, although asymptomatic and is “near the end of her life”.

Mrs Valkanidis, has been in St Basil’s since 2004 and her family’s experience with the facility and the staff was overall positive but things changed a few weeks before she was tested positive. 

Mr Valkanidis said after initially “not being able to get through” when trying to contact St Basil’s last week about his mother, he managed to see her only when the replacement staff took over.

“Mum can’t communicate obviously, as she has very late stage dementia, but we could at least see her,” he told The Greek Herald.

“I can only hope she wasn’t experiencing any pain or discomfort or neglect. To some degree, I feel relief to think that she probably doesn’t know what’s happening to her, but I feel for the other families and residents that we’re conscious of what was happening”.

Both Mrs Grouios and Mr Valkanidis said they would not return to St Basil’s but also want to make sure no other families go through situations like this.

On Friday, Archbishop Makarios held a memorial service for the coronavirus victims. During the service, he commemorated the names of the Greek people who recently passed away including those who were residents at the St Basil’s aged care facility in Melbourne.

“I ask all people to be patient and give us time. I am, personally, looking into the situation and will not hesitate, if necessary, to make tough decisions for the good of the organisation,” the Archbishop said.

Read More: ‘We want answers’ – Families of St Basils Fawkner residents unite as COVID outbreak grows

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced today that there has been 397 new cases and three deaths.

A man aged in his 80s, a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s died, bringing the state’s death toll to 116.

Mr Andrews said the coronavirus situation in Victoria’s aged care remains “a very serious challenge in many ways”.

There are 1008 active cases linked to the sector.

Read More: Victoria’s Greek community in tears – 16 deaths at St Basil’s, 22 Greek lives mourned

“This is very difficult for residents and families as well,” he said.

“All governments, all agencies are working together as closely as we possibly can to have one focus and that is on residents, their well-being, their health and by extension the well-being of families who are obviously concerned and very keen to get as much information as quickly as they possibly can.

“I can confirm to you that there has now been 570 shifts worked by hospital nurses across a number of private aged care settings, that is something that we should be very proud of, very, very proud and very grateful to those teams of nurses and other health workers who support them.

St Basil’s Fawkner Evacuated

As of yesterday, the St Basil’s home in Fawkner has been linked to 124 cases, including 78 residents, 35 staff and 11 other contacts.

The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, a joint state and federal task force, said the decision to fully evacuate the home was made after six staff brought in to help manage the outbreak were infected in recent days.

“The decision was made to transfer residents to hospitals due to a reduction in staff numbers at St Basil’s,” the centre said in a statement.

“Six staff at St Basil’s have tested positive for COVID-19, and as a precautionary measure all staff have been instructed to be tested and self-isolate for a mandatory period.”

Australia’s Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Alison McMillan said the decision had not been made lightly and acknowledged there were risks with moving residents, particularly those with dementia.

“But it was felt that it was time that we do this for the safety of the residents,” she said.

“It highlights the challenges we face in managing this outbreak. So it was staff that came to help in that difficult time 10 days ago and have now unfortunately tested positive.”

Alleged members of construction identity George Alex’s alleged $17 million tax fraud scheme were apparently ‘blindsided’ by the raids undertaken by police on July 21.

According to documents released by the Queensland Supreme Court, 12 people accused of being involved in the alleged syndicate were given almost no notice that the Australian Federal Police were applying to the court to freeze 99 individual assets that the police allege were funded by the proceeds of crime.

By the end of the proceedings on July 17, The George Alex 12 were ordered by the court to surrender control of millions of dollars worth of assets, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Read More: Construction figure George Alex arrested over money laundering, tax evasion

This included 14 properties, starting with Mr Alex’s waterfront apartment on the Gold Coast and a Sydney mansion in Earlwood worth $2.5 million, owned by a company linked to the construction identity.

Details on all the assets seizures can now be revealed after a non-publication order on their existence was lifted last week.

Police applied for the assets to be frozen on July 17, but the existence of the case was prevented from being revealed by a non publication order.

The order was in place because the police investigation, known as Operation Bordelon, was preparing to make pre-dawn raids in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, four days later that would result in 12 people being charged.

Lawyers for the police explained to the court that the order had to be kept a secret — including from the 12 people who were about to have their assets frozen — to prevent them from either hiding or offloading the assets.

It was for this reason that police lawyers explained that the application to freeze the assets had to be heard without giving any of the 12 targets notice that the case was actually happening, court documents said.

Mr Alex was alleged to be the leader of the syndicate that used labour hire and payroll companies to defraud the ATO. Millions of dollars were then allegedly transferred to Australian accounts controlled by other accused syndicate members.

Alex’s 22-year-old son, Arthur was charged with conspiring to cause a loss to the Commonwealth and intentionally deal with proceeds of crime, money or property worth $1,000,000 or more. He is yet to enter a plea.

People who knew Thanasis knew he had a warm heart, complimented brightly by his warm smile. Passing aged 74, Spanos will be deeply missed by the Greek Community in Melbourne, where he began his hospitality legacy.

When Thanasi came to Australia in 1971, his first port of call was Lonsdale Street, where he later ran Medallion Cafe for 20 years.

Thanasis’ greatest success, however, came from operating ‘Vanilla’, which has grown to be one of the largest businesses in Oakleigh.

Steve Dimopoulos, MP for Oakleigh, said Thanasis’ ability to connect with everybody was like “nothing I have ever seen”.

“This will be deeply felt by the Oakleigh community. We will stand by you always.”

An avid football fan as well, Thanasi was a supporter, life-member, sponsor and friend of South Melbourne FC for almost five decades.

Vanilla will be closed for 3 days to observe the beginning of their mourning period. (Saturday 1st August 2020 – Monday 3rd August 2020 inclusive).