The Age newspaper reported on Saturday that nationwide only a third of staff working in aged care homes have been vaccinated, according to figures from the federal department of health.
After an embarrassing admission by aged care minister Richard Colbeck last month that the department was not sure how many aged care workers had been vaccinated, the department has now made it mandatory for aged care operators to report staff immunisations.
The health department profided figures to The Age which showed that only 33.6 per cent of staff had received their first immunisation, and that of 263,000 workers, just over 88,000 had received their first shot, and about 43,000 had received a second dose by the week ending Friday, June 25.
Almost all of the nation’s 2869 residential aged care homes have now reported back to the Government on their vaccination levels.
In the first phase of the Morrison Government’s vaccination rollout, which began in February this year, it was intended that all aged care residents and staff be vaccinated within six weeks.
Clare O’Neil, federal Labor’s aged care spokeswoman, told The Age that the vaccine rollout in aged care was disgraceful.
“Aged care workers were supposed to all be vaccinated by the end of March,” she told the newspaper.
“It’s now three months later, and they have only managed to vaccinate a third of all workers.″
