More aged care residents died of COVID-19 in January than in the whole of 2021

It is the one statistic that Senator Richard Colbeck, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, did not want to discuss when he fronted the Senate Select Committee ’s COVID-19 hearing yesterday afternoon. Federal Government data published last Friday revealed that 389 aged care residents had died with COVID-19 up to 27 January, compared to a total of 282 deaths in 2021. Senator Colbeck told the Senate committee that 471 aged care residents had died in January. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday around 566 people had died in aged care homes nationally in the most recent Omicron COVID-19 variant wave. While acknowledging the “extreme difficulties” providers and aged care workers were working under, Senator Colbeck told the committee statistics showed how well the sector was performing. He noted that in 2020, there were 28,000 COVID-19 cases in Australia, of which 2,051 were in aged care (7.2%). Today, the figure is 1.8 million cases of COVID-19 in Australia, of which 10,500 are in aged care (0.58%). The Minister added “despite all the difficulties” the sector is performing “so much better” with the proportion of total cases 12 times less than in 2020. He credited vaccination, improved screening processes for visitors, advice on infection control and training with the states for the improvement. There were 1,261 active outbreaks in residential aged care homes last Friday – 555 in NSW, 296 in Victoria, 149 in SA, 220 in QLD, 17 in TAS, four in the NT, and 20 in the ACT. A total of 14,257 staff has COVID-19 compared to 9,643 residents. Of the residents, 4,740 are in NSW, 1,891 in Victoria, 1,023 in SA, 1,844 in QLD, 69 in TAS, 19 in the NT and 57 in the ACT. Of the staff, 6,356 are in NSW, 2,780 in Victoria, 1,523 in SA, 3,220 in QLD, 201 in TAS, 19 in NT and 158 in the ACT. Sonic Healthcare has conducted 1,489,518 COVID-19 tests at 2,892 residential aged care homes, as of 25 January. The tests detected 18,961 cases of the virus. Lieutenant General John Frewen, Commander of the COVID-19 Task Force Commander, said 99% of residential aged care facilities have received a booster clinic with the remaining delayed, due to factors such as COVID-19 outbreaks, adding they were scheduled to receive one in the coming days. He added second visits to RACs will also be offered to sites.