COVID Surge in Aged Care Confirms Epidemic Rising
30/10/2023
Commonwealth Data from Aged Care facilities confirms what we are missing due to the lack of community data collection – the current COVID-19 surge is well and truly on the rise.
OzSAGE is calling for
acknowledgement that simply ignoring SARS-Cov-2 is not a reasonable public health response
transparency from government and a public health effort to control this outbreak through a vaccines-plus approach
proper surveillance of community and hospital acquired COVID-19 infection
latest vaccines to be urgently made available to all, including children
education and initiatives to control airborne spread – including mandated use of effective masks in aged care – and to promote clean air indoors
antivirals to be made widely and easily available
See our additional recommendations for Residential Aged Care Facilities here.
Open outbreak = new notification that a facility has an outbreak
Closed outbreak = notification that a facility no longer has an outbreak
This ratio is an indication of the trajectory of the epidemic in Aged Care – currently on the rise rapidly
Resident cases = number of residents (people) notified as infected
New outbreaks = number of facilities advising a new outbreak for the week