Half of Queensland‘s Covid-19 deaths are nursing home residents as the virus rushes through them in a repeat of 2020.
Figures to January 20 recorded 59 people who died in aged care out of the 118 Queenslanders who had died as a result of the virus.
Total fatalities in the state are now 129 people, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announcing 11 more deaths on Tuesday.
Federal government data showed there were Covid outbreaks in 212 of Queensland’s more than 500 aged care facilities.
More than 3,600 people, including residents and staff, caught Covid-19 in Queensland nursing homes as of January 20, quadrupling in just a week.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced 11 more Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday as the state battles an outbreak in which half of those who have died reside in aged care facilities
United Workers Union aged care director Carolyn Smith said Covid outbreaks affected 1,000 aged care facilities around Australia.
‘Across aged care we’re expecting most facilities will have Covid in them,’ Ms Smith told Brisbane radio station 4BC.
She said staff were being temperature-tested rather than having access to rapid antigen tests and that additional PPE from the national stockpile was only provided once an outbreak was identified.
‘Because of the breakdown in the logistics chain, it’s sometimes five days or two weeks before that PPE gets to a facility that’s already got a Covid outbreak,’ she said.
Ms Smith said aged care workers were chronically understaffed due to the number of their colleagues on sick leave.
‘I have workers saying to me, ‘I’m worried I’m going to kill one of the people I love”,’ she said.
United Workers Union aged care director Carolyn Smith said aged care workers are waiting more than a week for additional supplies of PPE due to supply chain delays
Emergency services have responded to 59 people who have died in aged care out of the 118 Queenslanders who had died as a result of the virus
Some facilities in Queensland have used lockdowns, confinement of residents to rooms and restrictions on visitors to contain outbreaks during the latest wave.
Queensland chief health office John Gerrard said there were no plans to close aged care facilities in the state.
On the same day, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said she was concerned about the delay in the rollout of Covid booster jabs in aged care facilities.
‘I am concerned that not all aged-care facilities have their boosters yet… I believe the Commonwealth is saying around two-thirds have already been completed,’ she said.
The majority of Queensland’s Covid deaths in the past week were people over the age of 50, with only a couple having received a booster jab.
Queensland announced 9,546 new Covid cases and 11 deaths on Tuesday but Ms Palaszczuk said hospitalisations from the latest outbreak were lower than expected.
There are now 928 people in Queensland public hospitals, up from 878 yesterday, including 51 patients in ICU.
