Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Aged Care, has announced a further $540 million to battle COVID-19, including measures to keep aged care residents and workers safe.
Mr Hunt, who will retire from politics at the next election, said the Federal Government has committed more than $33 billion in additional health spending due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of the $492 million will be spent on:
- The Aged Care Preparedness Support Measures Extension;
- The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre (VACRC);
- Support for Aged Care Workers in COVID-19 Program (SACWIC);
- COVID-19 pathology testing in aged care, and
- Aged Care: RAD Loan Scheme.
At 8am on 3 December, there were 191 active cases (127 residents and 64 staff) of COVID-19 related to residential aged care across 28 residential aged care facilities, with another significant fall in cases from a week ago. 192 residents have died of COVID-19 from 541 residential aged care homes with outbreaks since 1 January, according to the latest Federal Government data.
At 3 December, 84% of residential aged care facilities have had no cases of COVID-19.
