Residential aged care COVID-19 cases fall a further 33% with less than half actual residents

The number of COVID-19 cases in residential aged care (RAC) homes continues to plummet and there are now many RACs with staff having caught the virus, but not the residents. Official data published by the Federal Government last Friday, shows that there are 8,972 cases of COVID-19 in 986 RAC homes. Of those cases, 4,190 are actually residents. Compare this to 28 January, when they were 23,900 active cases in 1,261 homes. The number of aged care home residents who have died, as of last Friday, is 652. Two weeks ag, the official number of aged care resident deaths was 389. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday 711 people have died in aged care homes this year and he described every death as a “terrible tragedy”. He pointed out, as Professor Brendan Murphy, Commonwealth Chief Health Officer, told the Senate Estimates Community Affairs Legislation Committee in Canberra, that not all of these residents were killed by COVID-19 even if they were positive at the time of death.

“While we mourn the loss of those who have passed away in aged care, who have had COVID-19 when they have passed away ... passing away with COVID is not the same as passing away because of Covid,” said the Prime Minister.

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said 58% of those who have died in aged care due to COVID-19 in the latest Department of Health data, were in the palliative stage.

“Then there’s 27% – and there’s some overlap here – are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. And so, what we see is that amongst those that are fully vaccinated, there is a very low loss of life unless they are palliative.”