The federal government, which has responsibility for the aged care sector, says it has acted to ensure a constant supply of PPE [[personal protective equipment]] and rapid antigen tests for aged care homes.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says actions have been taken.
"At the Commonwealth level, we've already delivered over 9.2 million rapid antien tests directly, of which 7.6 million have gone to aged care, continuously and consistently since August of last year. We are always looking at continuous improvement, continuous improvement. And that is what we have done throughout the pandemic, whether it is closing the borders, or the work being done in relation to procuring PPE...right through the course of it (the pandemic). So there is continuous learning and engagement."
In New South Wales, which has the highest number of outbreaks in aged care homes of 555, the issue has been highlighted in the fatality figures.
Sean [[Shawn]] Rooney, CEO of Leading Age Services Australia*, says with more cases documented in Australia of a new su- variant of Omicron, BA.2, there is an urgent need to accelerate the rollout of the booster vaccine in the sector.
"The federal government has been running a booster program that sees vaccination visit every aged care home to offer the booster to aged care residents. Now, the last report I heard is that every aged care home will have had at least one visit from those vaccination teams by the end of next week. What we have heard though is that the uptake of some residents in some locations has been lower than we would have liked. We would like to see more residents taking the booster when it is made available to them. And then we look to the staff. We know that we have 99 per cent-plus of staff in aged care homes vaccinated. We want to see them prioritised for the booster programs."
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