Nurses from across Australia are being called in to support St Anne's Nursing Home in Broken Hill as the centre's COVID outbreak worsens.
A fourth resident at the Southern Cross Care facility has died, while the centre has been in lockdown for two weeks since the virus was first detected.
While all four residents who died had COVID, the virus is not being directly blamed for all of their deaths, with one of the residents having recovered from the virus in the days before they died.
"All together we've had 29 residents test positive to COVID across the facility," Southern Cross Care Broken Hill chief executive Zoe Tonkin said.
Struggling to hold back tears, Ms Tonkin revealed the deaths had had a significant impact on staff, families and other residents.
"We send our deepest condolences to the families," she said.
Ms Tonkin also thanked the community for their support during a difficult period.
Initially contained to a single wing of the nursing home, the virus has now spread to an area that houses Alzheimer's patients, which is of particular concern to staff.
"Yesterday we had it pop up in our memory support unit," Ms Tonkin said.
"We were very conscious of those residents [because they] wander a lot and touch everything, and we knew that if it was going to get in there it would spread very quickly."
Staff also impacted by COVID
One of the other concerns facing residents at the facility is the lack of regular staff being available.
"Staff are severely impacted not just with COVID themselves, but they've got family members they live with that have got COVID," Ms Tonkin said.
"They need to be home to look after them. It's forced staff into roles they usually don't do.
Because of the severity of the outbreak and the staffing problems, nurses are being called in from interstate.
"Seven nurses are coming from Adelaide and the Northern Territory, while two others are coming from Melbourne and one from Queensland," Ms Tonkin said.
Finding accommodation a challenge
However, one of the challenges facing the incoming staff is the lack of accommodation in Broken Hill.
"If anyone has any accommodation, please let us know," Ms Tonkin said.
The call has prompted a local grazier Matt Jackson to offer two demountable rooms to the support nurses.
"There's four rooms in each with an en suite, TV, little fridge and air conditioning ... never been used," he said.
But in order to transport the demountables, Mr Jackson needs someone to collect them and drive them back to Broken Hill, as well as "a couple of tradies, a plumber and an electrician" to connect everything.
"I think the biggest thing would be trying to get the council on board to forego any red tape that might be involved in plonking demountables in certain spots," Mr Jackson said.
