‘Downplaying how bad things are’: COVID vaccine rates fall and outbreaks rise in aged care – ABC News

Health experts are calling for government intervention in the wake of rising COVID outbreaks and plummeting vaccination rates in aged care.

The Department of Health released new data last week that revealed only 30.3 per cent of aged care residents had received a booster dose in the last six months and 68.1 per cent since January 2023.

That comes as there are 459 active COVID outbreaks nationally within aged care facilities, which translates to 2,135 active cases.

In NSW alone there are 146 outbreaks and 688 infections.

Aged care consultant Paul Sadler said he was "concerned" about the numbers.

"The total number of outbreaks and cases is ticking back up a bit at the moment. And it looks like we might have another wave. It could be affecting a large number of homes," he said.

"We've still got 32 people in the last week that died in aged care, so we still have a level of COVID impacting people tragically within the sector."

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended from September last year that all those aged 75 and over should get a booster dose every six months, and it should be considered for all adults aged 65 to 74.

RSL LifeCare, which manages 29 retirement homes, has had seven outbreaks in the last month, five of which are still active.

A spokesperson for the clinical care team said the organisation was "vigilant and cautious" when it came to outbreaks butadded that "despite our best efforts, we cannot always prevent COVID-19 entering aged care facilities".

"Our management and care staff teams, in partnership with our consumer's GPs, are always concerned about levels of COVID and other illnesses in the community," they said.

Mr Sadler said the reason behind the falling vaccination rate was either because facilities were treating the virus like other diseases or society's laxity towards COVID had spread to aged care.

"The levels of people who are up to date (with their vaccines) within six months in the community have been falling and I think that's about the effectiveness of public health messaging and governments treating this as a post-pandemic phase."

Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist at the University of South Australia, is more alarmed by the government's response.

"What's more concerning is that the government say that this is a priority area to get the residents up to date with their booster shots and yet the actual percentage who are up to date is going backwards," he said.

"These are our most vulnerable people."

Professor Esterman said the government's lack of "care" made the population less concerned about the pandemic.

"The government has been downplaying COVID-19 now for a year or so," he said.

"But we are still actually still in a global pandemic, and we are still seeing successive waves of COVID-19, which aren't particularly predictable."

"There's this downplaying about how bad things are, and they are bad."

He also raised further issues when it came to vaccinating the elderly and transporting doses to facilities.

"Many of the residents in aged care facilities are demented. That means that if you want permission to vaccinate them you have to get permission from their guardian. So you got this logistical issue of trying to sign up to actually vaccinate them," he said.

"There's also things like the current vaccine requires extremely cold temperatures to transport them."

Professor Esterman said these issues "were all interplaying" but the primary reason "why we're not seeing enough of our aged care residents vaccinated is simply one of complacency from the government downwards".

When asked about how to improve the numbers, Mr Sadler recommended better messaging and reintroducing COVID-safe measures.

"I think if the rate of infection gets any higher and the number of outbreaks continue to grow then it would be very sensible for the government to resume some of the measures they put in place during the height of the pandemic two years ago," he said.

"I'm not suggesting we should go back to lockdowns but absolutely we should allow families to see their residents in aged care, but we need to be trying to improve the vaccination rate."

Professor Esterman called for face mask mandates in aged care facilities to be reintroduced and more GP visits.

GPs and nurses primarily administer booster doses for residents.

"If I was running the place, which unfortunately I'm not, the first thing I'd do would be to reintroduce face mask mandates for staff and visitors," Professor Esterman said.

"It's one thing we know works.Yet it's not mandated, it's left to each facility to decide whether people should wear a face mask or not. To me that's a big cop out."

The Department of Health said it "strongly encouraged" those at "higher risk of severe health outcomes from COVID-19" to be up to date with their booster doses.

"The Department of Health and Aged Care recognises that COVID-19 continues to disrupt the lives of Australians, and as such would like to see the vaccination levels as high as possible for those whom vaccination is recommended,'" a statement read.

The department said it regularly conveyed the importance of vaccines, masks and COVID-19 safe behaviours through the media and social media.

However, there was an acknowledgement that some aged care residents "may not choose to have the booster for a variety of reasons including COVID vaccine fatigue, eligibility, localised COVID outbreaks and potentially waiting for a new vaccine".

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'Downplaying how bad things are': COVID vaccine rates fall and outbreaks rise in aged care - ABC News