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The Covid-19 Response Inquiry report released recently noted Covid’s disproportionate impact on the elderly, who not only accounted for the great majority of deaths but also “experienced extreme social isolation”, due to the choice to avoid interactions or because of visitation bans enforced in aged care facilities.
Our residential aged care population were better protected early on by population control measures than their counterparts in other countries.
“Up to early 2022, 1 per cent of the total number of Australian aged care residents died of Covid-19 associated illness, compared to Sweden (8 per cent), Scotland (13 per cent), and the United States (13 per cent),” the report says.
Nonetheless, in 2022, our worst year for Covid mortality, almost 90% of the deaths were in people 70 years and older.
Since 2020, when the lack of outbreak preparedness and emergency planning in the aged care sector became stark, the government has developed half a dozen new guidelines and established several formal bodies and offices.
The flawed vaccine rollout “did not meet a single key target for vaccinating older Australians, either in or out of residential aged care facilities”, the report says.