Almost 1000 fewer elderly Australians died in aged care homes during the first seven months of 2020 than the same period last year in a trend attributed to record low influenza rates.
Almost 1000 fewer elderly Australians died in aged care homes during the first seven months of 2020 than the same period last year in a trend attributed to record low influenza rates, but experts warn this does not minimise the deadly threat of COVID-19.
A resident of St Basil's aged care home is evacuated to hospitals after a cluster of COVID-19 cases and deaths at the facility.Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said it would be "misleading" to interpret the data to argue that COVID-19 - a "particularly wretched virus" - posed less of a risk than influenza for elderly Australians, and that infection control measures had to be "near perfect" to keep it out of facilities.
Senator Colbeck's data release said higher flu immunisation rates and infection control protocols were the likely explanation for the overall fall in deaths, with just 28 deaths in elderly Australians attributed to influenza this year - compared with 837 last year and more than 1064 in 2017. Dr Coatsworth said the need to separate family members from their loved ones during outbreaks was the particularly cruel part of COVID-19, "and that's why we have to work particularly hard to do our best to keep COVID-19 out of aged care facilities".
It includes a full list of the 213 facilities which have had two or more cases, with all but five - four in NSW, one in Tasmania - located in Victoria.
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