This is an extract from a report to be in 'The Oz' on Monday 5...

This is an extract from a report to be in 'The Oz' on Monday 5 February 2024:

(bear in mind at this stage, such deaths are only a very small percentage of registered monthly deaths, but they are rising):

"...According to the Department of Health’s weekly Covid-19 snapshot of residential aged care, 131 people died in January compared with 59 deaths in October.

Weekly figures have been high across the summer period, with 104 deaths in November and 88 fatalities in December...

...Grattan Institute health policy director Stephen Duckett said the government, the residential aged-care sector and the primary care network had a responsibility to ensure older Australians were protected against the virus.

Professor Duckett, who previously served as Department of Health and Ageing secretary, urged the federal government to restart mass vaccination drives to protect residents from death.

“Generally the government seems to be in denial that Covid still exists and there certainly doesn’t seem to be sustained evidence it is using the available knowledge to actually protect older Australians living in aged care,” Professor Duckett said.

“The government ought to know the vaccination rates in every facility in the country and they should be holding those facilities to account by promoting vaccination rates or holding the primary care network to facilitate higher vaccination rates.”

Former Health department secretary Stephen Duckett. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Aged-care expert Paul Sadler said dropping vaccination rates were “a real concern” and suggested some restrictions could be brought back to protect vulnerable people in aged care during Covid-19 waves, calling on Aged Care Minister Anika Wells, Health Minister Mark Butler and Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson to act.

The calls come as case numbers surge, reaching a recent peak of 1946 new cases weekly in aged care on January 12 compared with 618 in on October ..

...Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said vaccination rates among aged-care residents had plummeted to “worrying lows” and “no action has been taken by the government to ensure residents can appropriately protect themselves from the virus”.

Senator Ruston said there were now more Covid deaths in aged care in the first eight months of the Albanese government than the entire first two years of the pandemic.

“It is tragic to see that the number of Covid-related cases and deaths in aged-care homes have doubled since October, and yet we have heard nothing from the government about what they are doing to support the sector through this summer wave,” Senator Ruston said."