A Department of Health report on COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care facilities has revealed residents and staff at 2,300 of the country’s almost 3,000 facilities have undergone coronavirus testing.
After recording 678 deaths in aged care across the country in 2020, there hasn’t been a single active case of COVID-19 in the sector since 28 October 2020, with the last new case being recorded on 26 September.
By comparison, the Canadian aged care sector experienced more than 17 times the number of COVID-19 deaths than Australia.
Sonic Healthcare was tasked by the Department of Health with the testing blitz, and have now completed 271,782 tests nationally, including 228,994 at more than 700 Victorian aged care facilities.
There were 218 Australian residential aged care facilities that suffered 224 outbreaks in 2020, which totaled 2,027 resident cases.
