It is a grim figure that appears only likely to get worse: 1,570 residential aged care residents have died from COVID-19 this year to 26 May.
152 residents died from COVID in the seven days to 6 May. To put this into perspective, 686 residents died in 2020 and 231 last year.
At 8pm on 26 May there were 6,274 active COVID cases in 780 active outbreaks in residential aged care homes across Australia. Of these, 3,952 cases were residents and 2,322 cases were staff.
The number of residential aged care homes with one or more cases of COVID has dropped in seven days from 825 and the number of cases has dropped slightly from last week, when there were 3,976 residents and 2,448 staff with COVID.
Of the residents with COVID, 1,265 are in Victoria; 1,237 in NSW; 500 in WA; 483 in QLD; 304 in SA; 81 in the ACT; 79 in TAS; and 3 in the NT. Of the staff, 590 in WA; 576 are in NSW; 502 in Victoria; 297 in QLD; 270 in SA; 45 in the ACT; 41 in TAS, and 1 in the NT.
This is despite the Commonwealth Health Department stating 93.5% of a total of 176,132 residents have had three vaccinations. In addition, 53% of people aged over 65 have received a fourth dose.
