Victorian health authorities have moved to establish an aged care response centre as the state continues to fight the surge in COVID-19 cases, with aged care workers banned from working at more than one facility in a bid to reduce the spread of infection.
Fears are mounting over the spread of the coronavirus throughout Victoria’s aged care system as more than 536 infections were linked to staff and residents across dozens of facilities.
“It is incredibly difficult to keep [coronavirus] out of aged care facilities particularly with such a transient, flexible and often insecure work force,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese criticised the government’s slow response saying more should have been done to protect the elderly.
“The fact is that insecure work is not just a problem for the economy, we’ve seen during this crisis that insecure work is an issue with the spread of this virus,” he said.
Victoria recorded another five virus-related fatalities, taking the state’s total death toll to 61, with 357 new infections.
