“This is a step by the state government that leaves them out of the game and the timing seems very strange,” he said.
“It’s funny that they do it now. Most facilities, residents and families would like to keep it. We know that care for the elderly is more at risk; more than 2,000 residents nationwide have died since the beginning. of this year ”.
The head doctor and president of the NSW Medical Association of Australia, Dr Michael Bonning, said easing restrictions on care for the elderly could make it difficult to protect vulnerable people who are likely to deteriorate faster.
“Changes in public health orders when there is a known and imminent increase in COVID cases place a huge potential burden on the care sector for the elderly and the health sector when we are already as narrow as we can be,” said Bonning.
“If we put ourselves in a position to make it difficult to protect these people, we are doing a bad service to the whole system,” he said.
An NSW Health spokesman said the guidelines recommended a limit of two adults and two children per resident per day, allowing the facilities to allow more visitors in special circumstances.
Fully vaccinated visitors were welcomed back into nursing homes in October last year, after the blockade of the Greater Sydney Delta banned them on 26 June.
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The prolonged shutdown forced facilities to use measures such as walking tours, for residents to reach out to friends and family from a balcony or through a window.
At the time, more than 61% of NSW people aged 16 and over were fully vaccinated. Today, more than 95% of eligible people have received a second dose.
Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet this week called on the community to look for a third and, if eligible, fourth COVID urgently, with only 60 per cent of the population triple vaccinated.
“We can do our best to make sure we go out to get these vaccines, and in doing so, we make sure to keep you safe.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received his booster shot on Tuesday, ahead of his trip to Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum.
NSW occupational health spokesman Ryan Park urged people to seek a booster vaccine as soon as possible to protect their loved ones and the elderly.
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