THE low rate of nursing home residents with up-to-date COVID-19 vaccinations has prompted a warning from the federal aged care watch dog. Login or signup to continue reading The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has put nursing home owners on notice after the most recent data released by the federal government. Only one in 10 nursing homes in the Hunter New England Central Coast region have between 90 and 100 per cent of their residents up to date with their vaccinations.
At one in five nursing homes across that region (25 per cent), only half or less of aged care facility residents (50 per cent or less) have received a booster shot in the past 12 months. Being up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations means having had a booster shot in the past six months. We are concerned about the proportion of aged care residents who are not up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations The warning comes as the Hunter New England Local Health District is dealing with 20 aged-care outbreaks of COVID-19 as at the end of May, rising from 14 last in April this year.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said all residential aged care providers had been put on notice to ensure timely access to COVID-19 vaccinations for residents, and to have robust infection prevention and control measures in place to reduce the risk of an outbreak over the winter period. Residential aged care homes with low COVID-19 vaccination rates raise questions for the commission about whether those in.