Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As of today, 56.1 per cent of aged-care workers have had their first dose of the vaccination. The declaration of a Commonwealth hotspot activates the supports that go to the state governments to ensure that they have the support and that the aged-care facilities have the support to prevent, wherever possible, those working across sites. They are the rules that have been put in place; they are the financial supports and other mechanisms that go in place when these Commonwealth hotspots are declared. But I make this very important point: the contrast between the outbreak that has occurred in Sydney this year and what occurred in Victoria last year, in terms of the rate of fatality that we saw in aged-care facilities, could not be more stark, and that is because the government ensured that we moved to put the vaccines into aged-care facilities and double-dosed those residents, with more than 80 per cent having double-dose vaccinations in those facilities. Last year, there was not a vaccination and we were able to constrain as much as possible in an unvaccinated population the impact of an extraordinary outbreak across Melbourne. In a way, it was far in advance of what we had seen in other countries that had been subject to those outbreaks when there were no vaccines. This year, with the vaccines in place, over 80 per cent of those in residential aged-care facilities are double-dose vaccinated and that has provided them with very important protection in the midst of this very significant outbreak. The Minister for Health may wish to add.

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