The COVID-19 Response Inquiry (CRI), which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced in September last year, revisits a grim chapter for the aged care sector, and its report, released this week, makes 35 "guiding recommendations" and "actions" aimed at making the sector more resilient, including overcoming vaccination fatigue.
The 877-page CRI report finds, "Australia’s aged care system was not prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic."
The report of the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Panel, Chaired by former NSW Health Secretary Robyn Kruk AO, states: "In 2020 the aged care workforce was understaffed, and residential aged care facilities’ preparedness plans and infection prevention and control resources were inadequate."
Chair COVID-19 Response Inquiry Panel
"The failures in the aged care response were due to a combination of factors, including pre-existing structural weakness across the sector, a lack of planning, and underdeveloped sector representation to government."
As the pandemic took hold, the sector was already under the scrutiny of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
Low vaccination rates today highlighted
The report makes nine "guiding recommendations" and 25 "actions", including "develop a national strategy to rebuild community trust in vaccines and improve vaccination rates".
"Surges of COVID-19 cases in residential aged care have continued in 2023 and 2024, coinciding with a decline in vaccination coverage."
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner
Today, only 53% of aged care residents are fully vaccinated, compared with 90% among their counterparts in England. Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson was forced to write to aged care operator boards in August, saying there was "no excuse" to let vaccination rates languish, prompting a temporary increase in aged care vaccination numbers.
Aged care residents still die every week from COVID-19, the report observed.
In the week to 24 October 2024, there were 46 new outbreaks in residential aged care facilities, 142 active outbreaks, 907 combined resident and staff cases, and 74 new resident deaths (64 due to the "delayed reporting" of a single aged care provider), bringing the total number of COVID-19-associated deaths in residential aged care facilities to 7,096.
The Prime Minister launched the CRI in September 2023 to review the Government response to the pandemic, identify lessons learned and assess Australia's preparedness for future pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic commenced in Australia in early 2020, and the response in the early days was navigated by the former LNP Government under Scott Morrison. The current Government came to power in May 2022; a year after current Government's election, the World Health Organization Director-General had announced that COVID-19 was no longer considered a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern'.
