Aged care regulator took four days to tell Australian government of St Basil's Covid-19 outbreak

Labor spokeswoman says delay was a catastrophic communications' failure that may have been deadly for Melbourne aged care home's residents

The aged care regulator has been accused of a catastrophic communications failure" causing a potentially deadly delay" after it was revealed it took four days to inform the federal government about a Covid-19 case at Melbourne's St Basil's aged care home.

The aged care quality and safety commissioner, Janet Anderson, wrote to the Senate committee on Covid-19 on Friday to clarify that the commission had learned on 10 July that a staff member had tested positive on 8 July.