As the federal government seeks fresh advice on whether to mandate the vaccination of all private nursing home staff, Victoria has toughened its stance on public sector aged care workers.
Kelly said they should receive COVID shots even if they have just had their flu jabs.
The advice previously has been for a two week interval between the flu and COVID shots.
As Victoria goes into a seven day lockdown amid escalating cases, the federal government pulled out all stops to finalise the vaccination of the aged care sector in the state.
There are 598 residential aged care facilities in Victoria. On Wednesday the government said 569 facilities had received a first dose (with 361 fully vaccinated with both doses).
It said the remaining 29 facilities would be prioritised.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Thursday all Victorian facilities would be done by Friday.
Date Time
Operational update – Victorian Aged Care Response Centre
The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre (VACRC) is coordinating testing of asymptomatic staff in Victorian aged care facilities.
Since late October, the cumulative total of tests recorded in 729 individual aged care facilities is 64,477 staff.
This is week 12 of asymptomatic testing. Over a 4 week period it is expected that all aged care facilities will have taken part in asymptomatic testing to staff.
Since December 30, VACRC has contacted 257 aged care facilities across Victoria that are in, or adjacent to, nominated COVID-19 exposure sites. VACRC has confirmed the facilities outbreak preparedness plans and expedited the routine asymptomatic testing.
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Report into Victoria s two deadliest coronavirus aged care outbreaks didn t go far enough , Health Minister Martin Foley says
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DecDecember 2020 at 5:03am
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Victoria s Health Minister says a report into the state s two deadliest nursing home outbreaks does not go far enough, and has criticised the Federal Government for a whole range of concerns within the sector.
Key points:
Health Minister Martin Foley has pushed for aged care staff to be limited to one facility during the pandemic
Date Time
Report into COVID-19 outbreaks at St Basil’s and Epping Gardens
The Australian Government has released the findings of the independent review into COVID-19 outbreaks at two Victorian aged care facilities: Heritage Care’s Epping Gardens and St Basil’s Home for the Aged.
Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said the report underlined the critical elements that led to the tragic outbreaks at the height of the second wave of community transmission across Melbourne following the Victorian Hotel Quarantine failures as outlined in today’s Inquiry.
It highlights the vital role the Commonwealth played to support the residents, staff and management affected by the outbreaks and underlines the lessons from both incidents.