Starting Monday, people in New South Wales will be able to visit nursing homes even if they have not had the COVID-19 vaccine.
Visitor limitations will also be relaxed, with the previous rule of two adults and two children a day now downgraded to a recommendation.
It comes when the state’s director general of health, Dr. Kerry Chant, approved changes to the current public health order and at the same time warned of a third serious wave of COVID-19 infections. .
NSW Health Director Dr Kerry Chant said a new wave of COVID-19 has begun in the state, which has been caused by the latest variants of Omicron. (new)
The CEO of the Association of Caregivers for the Elderly and the Community, Paul Sadler, said it was “a strange moment” on the part of the NSW government.
“We have projections that over the next six weeks we will see a significant increase in COVID’s community transmission, especially driven by Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 variants, and we don’t think now is the time to relax. to access residential care, ”he said.
“This year we have killed over 2,000 elderly care residents and we currently have approximately 100 people dying each week in Australia.
“So now is not the time to relax the restrictions on visits to care for the elderly.”
In response to maximum body repression, the federal government on Thursday announced a “Winter Plan” for caring for the elderly with the aim of protecting older Australians.
Elderly Minister Anika Wells said the government “will not be pleased with the protection of our most vulnerable Australians”.
“The winter plan released today offers the industry advice on how to prepare for, respond to and recover from COVID-19 and / or flu outbreaks this winter,” Wells said.
Hospitalization rates of patients with COVID-19 are increasing. (9 News)
“Masks remain a key line of defense in nursing homes and other high-risk settings, and I’m pleased to see that these measures are still in place across the country.”
Nursing homes still have the power to set their own visitor restrictions, but Sadler believes it would be “difficult” to insist on vaccinations for visitors without a public health order.
He said there was no will to restrict visitors from meeting with their loved ones.
As of Monday, people visiting care centers for the elderly in NSW will no longer need to be vaccinated against COVID-19. (iStock / Getty)
“We learned the lessons of 2020 and 2021 in which we sometimes kept completely out of the family, and that had very bad consequences for the elderly,” he said.
“What we would ask everyone to do is that if your elderly care provider asks you when you come to do rapid antigen testing, vaccinations, you get PPE, do it when asked.”
On Thursday, 36 COVID-related deaths were reported in NSW, along with an additional 14,235 cases.
There are currently more than 2,000 people hospitalized with the virus across the state, of whom 56 are receiving intensive care.