With more than a thousand Australian aged care facilities facing COVID-19 outbreaks, the federal government has extended support from defence force personnel to September.
Defence personnel will be kept in aged care facilities for another two months, as staffing shortages continue amid the ongoing winter surge in COVID-19 cases.The Defence Minister says it is an extreme response and not a long-term solutionMore than a thousand aged care facilities are battling COVID-19 outbreaks, but defence support first committed in February this year was due to end in a fortnight.
The federal government said the support would now stay in place until the end of September, alongside an existing commercial surge workforce contracted until the end of the year."It's not just extending the military support to aged care, it's actually increasing it up to 250 personnel through until the end of September," Mr Marles said.Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said ADF staff would be available in an emergency.
"Aged care providers and individual homes have a responsibility to manage staff, including surge workforce arrangements," Ms Wells said.
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