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When aged care resident Jane Malysiak was called up to receive her COVID-19 booster vaccine in a photo opportunity with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in November, her 100 fellow residents were told they would have to wait until February for their booster shot.
The facility’s chief executive Alexandra Davis thought that was “not good enough” and organised booster doses through a local GP instead, which she believes helped the facility avoid an outbreak despite staff testing positive.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison greets Jane Malysiak before receiving their COVID-19 booster vaccinations at Kildare Road Medical Centre in Blacktown in Sydney.Credit:Kate Geraghty
The story is one of many instances of Sydney aged care residents being asked to wait prolonged periods for a booster clinic as infections rose in early December, with many facilities forced into lockdown due to outbreaks before their clinic was scheduled – despite being eligible for weeks.
Many of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care facilities in Sydney – totalling more than 100 cases each across residents and staff – had not received a booster clinic before their first infections were recorded in December.
Ms Malysiak, from Brother Albert’s Home in Marayong, received her two initial doses at photo shoots with Mr Morrison and was called up for another media event on day one of the booster rollout at a nearby medical centre. But other residents of her facility would have to wait.
“They told us we would not be able to get a booster clinic until February,” Ms Davis told the Herald and The Age. “And I said, ‘well, that’s not good enough’. My residents [received their initial doses] in March and April last year.”
Scott Morrison received his second dose alongside 84-year-old aged-care resident Jane Malysiak in March 2021.Credit:Edwina Pickles
At the time, a person was eligible for their booster six months after a second dose. Ms Davis said the federal Health Department told her the clinic had been scheduled so late because many of her staff – not included in the initial in-reach clinic – were not yet eligible.
The Prime Minister’s Office referred questions to a spokesperson for Operation COVID Shield, the federal program distributing vaccinations, who confirmed a GP administered boosters on December 3, 6 and 10 at Brother Albert’s Home.
The department did not directly respond to questions about the requirements for an aged care facility to receive a booster clinic or whether staff eligibility was included in the assessment.
A department spokesperson said more than 2310 residential aged care facilities – 90 per cent of facilities in Australia – had received a booster clinic, and the department brought forward “the large majority” of clinics to January 2022 in line with updated eligibility rules.
“In addition, some GPs and pharmacists are providing booster vaccination services to residents and facilities,” they said. “Staff have received boosters through the in-reach program alongside residents if eligible. Additional hubs are being planned to support workers to receive boosters, in particular for workers in those states requiring that they be mandatory.”
There are currently more than 11,000 active coronavirus cases in residents and aged care workers in NSW across more than 555 homes.
Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler said the rapid surge of Omicron took hold while many older people did not have protection of a booster. “The transmission was so high that it left aged care in a vulnerable situation,” he said.
The Operation COVID Shield spokesperson said as of Monday more than 99 per cent of aged care facilities had received a booster clinic or were scheduled to receive one.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt this week said the booster program was now six weeks ahead of the original schedule, attributing lower vaccination in aged care than the general population to families not consenting to the shot for frail relatives.
Mr Hunt said approximately 60 per cent aged care deaths were in palliative care and 25 per cent of people who had died had not received both vaccine doses.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said state health authorities were working with their federal counterparts to figure out why a “relatively small number” of NSW aged care facilities had not received a booster clinic.
Mr Sadler said the most common reasons booster clinics had been delayed were live outbreaks on-site and a lack of aged care staff to arrange the logistics of helping residents receive the shot due to mass furloughs following COVID-19 exposure.
In some of the largest virus outbreaks in Sydney aged care facilities, the first cases were recorded before a booster clinic was scheduled. These facilities are now waiting on second clinics to vaccinate large numbers of residents, given local health advice to receive a booster shot four to six weeks after infection.
At St Sergius Aged Care in Cabramatta, the booster clinic was scheduled during an outbreak – which grew to 113 residents and 97 staff – meaning many eligible residents could not receive the shots due to being COVID-positive.
Residents at Bupa’s Clemton Park aged care home were two weeks from receiving boosters when an outbreak began in late December. The clinic was brought forward by a week in light of the cases, but only 31 COVID-negative residents received shots. Some families found booster doses for their loved ones elsewhere when they learnt of the delay.
According to federal health department data up to January 31, more than half of the 389 COVID-19 deaths in residential aged care facilities this year have occurred in NSW.
There have been 184 deaths in NSW, compared to 81 in Queensland, 64 in Victoria and 58 in South Australia. Both the ACT and Tasmania have reported one death in residential aged care homes in 2022, while none have been reported in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
On Monday, Premier Dominic Perrottet said the situation in aged care was “concerning” and he would be open to assisting with the sector’s booster rollout, as NSW Health did with aged care staff vaccinations last year. However, on Tuesday Mr Perrottet said this had not been requested by the federal government.
The Premier said his government needed to “balance” any assistance with maintaining staffing and resources in the sectors the state was responsible for running.
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