Earlier this week, Peter Rozen QC told commissioners Australia has one of the highest aged care death rates in the world. He said that more than 200 residents of aged care homes had died during COVID-19, representing 70% of Australia's COVID-related deaths.
Secretary for the Department of Health Professor Brendan Murphy has strongly disputed that position while giving evidence at the coronavirus parliamentary inquiry:
"That is entirely true, but the conclusion that it's one of the worst nations in the world - on that basis, you would say New Zealand is much worse than Australia and they've had about somewhere in the 20s in total deaths.
"When you have very, very low death rate generally, and the aged care death rate as a proportion is high, but our death rate - we've had tragic deaths in aged care, but it's only 0.1% of aged care residents compared to 5% in the UK."
Counsel then asked Professor Murphy why the aged care sector wasn't able to respond in a way that protected the residents, knowing how vulnerable they were:
"The aged care sector, when you have very widespread community transmission, with workers unwittingly bringing in cases all the time, picking up the virus in the community - just about every case in Australia has come from that - it is impossible to prevent completely.
"Every single facility in Victoria has PPE. They've had PPE training. We've got rapid response teams on site. We've got testing teams on site. We did a lot of preparation, and we are doing even more response and preparation at the moment. But unfortunately, there is not a country in the world anywhere, now late in the pandemic or early in the pandemic, that's had community transmission the size of Victoria that has been able to avoid substantial aged care outbreaks and deaths.
"It is one of the most tragic consequences of COVID-19 - its effect on the elderly. That is why we have been pushing, from the outset, to control community transmission. Not to stop it spreading in the fit young people who don't get very sick, but to protect our elderly. That's what our focus has been."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA4LTE0L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MtdmljdG9yaWEtbWVsYm91cm5lLW5ldy16ZWFsYW5kLzEyNTU2MjA40gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyNTU2MjA4?oc=5
2020-08-14 02:18:00Z
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