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