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© 2024 The Weekly SOURCE
Topic - Aged Care

Flu vaccine now mandatory for aged care workers: Federal Government

1 min read

Credit: ABC

Aged care providers will have to offer the flu vaccine to every staff member after Health Minister Greg Hunt and Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt made the announcement.

Aged care homes that only had 25% of their staff vaccinated had a 25% higher rate of flu outbreaks last year than those with 75%+ of their staff vaccinated, according to the Government’s figures.

Their survey of 2,609 homes found just 3.5% had the recommended staff coverage of 95%+ to gain ‘herd’ immunity, while only 35.9% had the recommended resident coverage of 95%+.

Providers will have to implement the changes quickly however – the Australian Medical Association (AMA) advises the best time to get the flu shot is the end of April and beginning of May.

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