National cabinet plans rapid-response units to curb Covid-19 outbreaks in Australian aged care facilities

Rapid response units aimed at preventing Covid-19 outbreaks in aged care could be rolled out across Australia as leaders plan ways to prevent a repeat of the heartbreak seen in Victoria.

Governments across the country are “preparing for the worst, hoping for the best” when it comes to responding to outbreaks in the aged care sector, according to Prof Paul Kelly, the acting chief medical officer.

As Victoria reported 450 new cases of the virus and 11 more deaths, the national cabinet meeting on Friday focused heavily on the situation in that state and the need to avoid a repeat of the problems in aged care in other states and territories.

Scott Morrison, the prime minister, said the meeting had committed to an audit of state and territory aged care emergency response capabilities because there was a need to “stress test” the systems in place across Australia.

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“I think states and territories are very mindful of this and keen to adapt and apply the lessons that have been picked up in Victoria,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

The two levels of government will spend the next fortnight developing plans covering a range of measures such as face-to-face infection control training with aged care facilities even where there are no known cases of coronavirus.

The plans would also include “compulsory use of face masks, workforce controls and the use of private hospital resources that will be actioned in locations where there are active cases of Covid-19”, according to a statement issued after the national cabinet meeting.

The federal government has also flagged the establishment of coordination centres, similar to the “Victorian Aged Care Response Centre” that was created on 25 July.

The Victorian centre brought together a range of federal and state government agencies with the aim of coordinating and expanding resources to tackle the challenges of Covid-19 in aged care services.

Morrison said it was important to be “in a position to put in place quite quickly an aged care response unit similar to that which we’ve been able to stand up in Victoria, which has aided greatly in our ability to stabilise that situation”.

He acknowledged that “the hardest task” of the past week or so “was stabilising aged care”. The prime minister said the national cabinet’s commitment to work together on aged care preparedness plans was “very important”.

Over the past few weeks the Morrison government has faced increased scrutiny over the problems that have beset the aged care sector, which is a federal responsibility.

A parliamentary inquiry was told this week that 97 Victorian aged care facilities had been affected in the second wave, with 657 residents and 594 staff infected with Covid-19. A further 25 home care services for the elderly were also affected. Seventeen recipients of these services were infected, as were 24 staff working in home care. There had been 108 fatalities.

On the issue of paid pandemic leave, Morrison signalled the federal government would increase funding for residential aged care providers to provide leave outside hotspots.

On 27 July the Fair Work Commission ordered residential aged care providers to give workers two weeks’ paid pandemic leave. Peak aged care bodies warned they would struggle to implement the nationwide rule because existing commonwealth funding only provided for paid pandemic leave at centres in hotspots.

On Friday Morrison was asked if the government would increase funding to the sector to implement the decision outside hotspots. He replied that “the commonwealth will support the decisions of the Fair Work Commission as they’ve made those orders”.

Morrison also revealed that no state other than Victoria had taken up the commonwealth’s offer to co-fund the $1,500 pandemic leave disaster payment. The program provides a hardship payment for people required to self-isolate, but Labor has accused the federal government of simply changing funding arrangements for an existing Victorian scheme.

The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, told reporters in Adelaide he had not taken up the offer because he had no desire to declare a state of disaster to access the program.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, updated the meeting on the developments in his state and thanked his counterparts for the support they had provided. On Friday it was revealed that there were now 911 healthcare workers with active infections of Covid-19 in Victoria, a rise of 101 since Thursday.

Kelly told reporters there would be a lag time of a week or two before Victoria’s stricter lockdown measures made a difference in Covid-19 case numbers.

The acting chief medical officer said he was “much more hopeful” than he was a few weeks ago about the development of a successful vaccine because of recently published papers showing progress.

But Morrison signalled his concern about the potential for hoarding, saying whichever country ultimately found the vaccine “must share it” with the rest of the world or be “judged terribly by history”.

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While Morrison declined to specify who he was talking about, he insisted that every leader should be prepared to say: “We pledge that if we find the vaccine we’ll share it.”

The meeting also agreed to extend the current caps on international arrivals into Australia until 24 October, “subject to further advice on quarantine capacity”.

Such measures were likely to remain in place “for some months” because of the need to ensure no additional strains on the hotel quarantine arrangements for people arriving in Australia, Morrison said.

After calls from the opposition to find a “hybrid” solution for Victorian parliamentarians to participate in the next sitting of federal parliament by videolink, Morrison said he had no objection to allowing people to make speeches or ask or answer questions remotely.

Morrison said he, too, would hope to participate in question time remotely “if I had to be isolated for whatever reason”. But he said any technical barriers needed to be ironed out so the government could have confidence it would “work well”.