A staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, raised concerns about the way the situation had been handled.

A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said the first case was identified last Thursday with eight residents and three staff affected, with the department notified on Tuesday.

Respect Aged Care chief operating officer Brett Menzie said it wasn't a major outbreak.

The dates and number of infected people differed to those provided to DHHS, with Mr Menzie stating five residents and three staff members were infected.

Mr McKenzie said a resident first showed signs of gastro on Sunday, with an outbreak - which occurs when three people show symptoms - declared on Monday.

He said the Health Department had been notified and infection control procedures enacted.

"We also increase cleaning rounds in areas of public space," he said.

"We've got this one confined to a small area.

"We're hoping we can come out of that pretty quickly."

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency was critical of the home in the wake of a 2017 flu outbreak in which 122 people were infected and 10 died.

An investigation found staff failed to identify the outbreak early enough.

"St John's Retirement Village Nursing Home did not implement a coordinated and timely infection control program that was effective in identifying and containing infection during the influenza and respiratory outbreak of August and September 2017," a report found.

"Early identification of influenza like respiratory illness during the influenza season did not occur."

One person received a letter about the outbreak after their relative died.