ADF Support For Aged Care Facilities To Be Extended

Australian Defence Force assistance for aged care homes has been extended for another seven weeks.

ADF support for aged care facilities has been extended until the end of September amid a rising number of Covid cases in the aged care sector.

At least 6,000 residents along with 3,250 aged care staff nationwide have contracted Covid during the latest outbreak.

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Defence Minister Richard Marles told ABC news that military support will both be increased and extended to combat the escalating number of cases.

“It’s important that we need to be doing everything we can to meet the challenge,” he said.

“It’s not just extending the military support to aged care, it’s actually increasing it up to 250 personnel through until the end of September.”

- Defence Minister Richard Marles

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells also told ABC news that the aged care sector is currently grappling with 983 outbreaks across the country.

“People are doing double shifts, people are working every single day without breaks. It’s an incredibly stressful environment,” she said.

Ms Wells added that the Defence Force have deployed 24 Defence personnel as part of a “surge workforce” to assist with staff shortages as a result of the Covid outbreaks.

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