Jason sees the ongoing burden of COVID-19 in residential aged care as CEO of the Not For Profit which owns and operates 13 homes in Queensland.
“When one of our homes is in an outbreak situation, you walk in, and you go through the RAT testing, and you sit there with them, and you can see all the people with their mask on [during an outbreak].
"Working with a mask on all day is no fun," he said. "You feel it, seeing everyone covered up.
"My empathy and my love is for our people who are at the front [line] of this business every day. It's amazing what they do.
"We're quite proactive. We do things in accordance with the Health Department. But [COVID-19 is] not going away."
Despite the reduced supplement to cover COVID-19 infection control and outbreaks from 1 January 2025, Jason said he "appreciates" the additional Government funding.
In the week to 13 January 2025, there were nearly 700 COVID-19 cases among residents and staff in residential aged care, and 109 homes were experiencing outbreaks.
Since the start of the pandemic, 7,303 aged care residents have died from COVID-19, yet fewer than half - 41.7% - have received the recommended six-monthly vaccination.
This week, Southern Cross Care Queensland (SCC QLD) opened its new 81-bed aged care facility, Illoura, in Chinchilla, about 300km west of Brisbane.
