NSW Health update
The screening advice for residential aged care facilities has been updated as of 10 October 2021.
The key messages for this update include:
- From 11 October 2021, all stay at home orders across NSW are lifted.
- From 11 October 2021, residents are permitted to have two visitors per day provided: they are aged 12 years and over AND have received a second dose of a COVID vaccination at least 14 days prior to their visit.
- Residents are permitted to leave the facility and attend family gatherings or for other reasons but must abide by the current Public Health (COVID-19 General) Order 2021.
Please keep up to date with the latest information on the NSW Health website.
Recording of live COVID-19 webinar for providers now available
Thank you to the more than 1,000 participants who joined Friday’s special live webinar hosted by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, and Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck.
A recording of the webinar is now available online.
Panellists included Department of Health representatives and Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Annie Butler.
Discussions focused on the importance of vaccination for in-home and community aged care workers and care recipients as well as the recent changes to vaccine priority and access.
Participants were advised that consideration is being given to mandatory COVID‑19 vaccination for the in-home and community workforce, with work underway on how that could be implemented in partnership with workers and providers.
The reporting obligations of providers to report up to date and accurate COVID‑19 workforce vaccinations was highlighted.
The department will shortly issue a FAQ document to respond to questions that could not be addressed during the webinar due to time.
Reminder: mandatory reporting on COVID-19 vaccination for all CHSP and NATSIFACP providers
Reminder that mandatory reporting commenced on 5 October 2021 for all Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP) home care providers to report and provide updates on the COVID‑19 vaccination status of the aged care workforce.
Reporting is via the My Aged Care portal for providers.
The new reporting requires CHSP and NATSIFACP home care providers to record de-identified data at a service level on the:
- total number of workers at each aged care service, and of those,
- the number of workers at each service who have received a single dose of a COVID‑19 vaccine
- the number of workers at each service who have received all required doses of a COVID‑19 vaccine.
Guidance and further information is available on the department’s website.
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