The nation’s aged care regulator admitted to knowing of the COVID-19 outbreak at St Basil’s Home for Aged Care in Fawkner earlier than previously claimed.

A four-day delay in the federal governments intervention at St Basil’s resulted in precious time wasted and could have saved some of the 28 lives of resident lost as a result of the outbreak, according to Neos Kosmos sources.

Aged Care Quality and Safety (ACQSC) Commissioner Janet Anderson revealed a phone call from St Basil’s on July 10, making a correction to evidence that had made headlines last week when she had claimed that the national regulator had only been told of the outbreak on 14 July.

St Basil’s Chairman Konstantin Kontis has always claimed that he had informed authorities of the first COVID-19 case as soon as it was detected.

Mr Kontis told Neos Kosmos, “We informed the relevant authorities and federal authorities within 30 minutes of the first case, as we were duty-bound to do. I am outraged that state authorities delayed reacting, and this resulted in the virus being spread causing us to mourn so many human lives. I am sad for the people we lost and understand the outrage of their relatives. I, too, am outraged.”

On Monday, the ACQSC has been accused of a “destructive failure in communication” which resulted in a “possibly fatal delay”.

Last week, Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck and Health Department Head Brendan Murphy both said it took almost a week for the federal government to learn of Melbourne’s largest aged care outbreak.

READ MORE: Premier Andrews won’t have “crack at people at St Basil’s” but is critical nonetheless

Both Senator Colbeck and Professor Murphy detailed various failures in the handling of the St Basil’s aged care COVID-19 outbreak and were critical of the state government.

On Monday, what Mr Kontis had claimed all along was finally confirmed, and he was justified after insisting that he had informed authorities from 9 July when the first case was detected.

Ms Anderson admitted on Monday morning that there was failure in the preparation of a plan for aged care facilities.

Many deaths and dozens of cases are linked to the outbreak at St Basil’s, with many Greek Australians mourning relatives while accountability is being sought.

Mr Kontis told Neos Kosmos that at 9am on 22 July, the management and regular staff of St Basil’s were obliged to leave the facility.

“According to the head nurse’s public confession, we offered our facilities in an excellent condition. We returned on the 6 July and found chaos,” he said.

Ms Anderson, in a letter to Senator Katy Gallagher, said there was a four-day delay in informing the Ministry of Health.

She admitted to personally not knowing of the situation at St Basil’s until 14 July, whereas the committee learnt on 10 July that a staff member had tested positive to COVID-19 on 8 July during a telephone investigation of all facilities in Victoria in order to create a COVID-19 plan.

Senior Counsel assisting the inquiry, Peter Rozen QC, revealed on Monday that the ACQSC and federal health department had no COVID-19 response plan for the aged care sector. Mr Rozen noted that Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said in late July that “aged care around the country has been immensely prepared” and the royal commission “will be scrutinising” that claim.

READ MORE: Chaos, class action and coronial inquiry into what went wrong at St Basil’s

“The regulator did not have an appropriate aged care sector COVID-19 response plan. Given that it was widely understood that recipients of aged care services were a high-risk group, this seems surprising,” Mr Rozen said.

“The evidence will reveal that neither the commonwealth department of health nor the aged care regulator developed a Covid-19 plan specifically for the aged care sector.”

Mr Rozen said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee did not update its advice for aged care for a “crucial period of six weeks” until 3 August.

Later this week, the royal commission examine evidence of a stand-off between Commonwealth and state health authorities regarding the best handling of Sydney’s Newmarch House.