No new local Covid cases in NSW, despite south coast alerts

NSW has recorded no new local cases of Covid-19 infections, but worrying data shows 18 per cent of Australian aged care residents are refusing to be vaccinated.

NSW has recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday, despite a Covid-19 positive family travelling through southern NSW in late May.

Five overseas-acquired cases were recorded in the same period, bringing the total cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,406.

There were 17,524 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day’s total of 19,403.

NSW Health administered 7,483 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 5,519 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.

The total number of vaccines administered in NSW is now 1,488,774.

Aged-care residents reject Covid vaccinations

Tens of thousands of aged-care residents across Australia are refusing to be vaccinated despite being at the highest risk of dying from Covid-19, new figures reveal.

The federal government has faced heavy criticism in recent days over the slow pace of ­vaccination rollout across aged-care facilities.

But figures released last week to a Senate estimates hearing show 33,000 — or 18 per cent — of elderly Australians offered a vaccination in aged-care facilities have not received one.

Aged care resident Jane Malysiak gets her second Covid-19 vaccination shot. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The statistics also reveal that vaccine hesitancy rates differ markedly across the country, with the elderly in Queensland, Western Australia and the North Territory far less likely to take a jab than their counterparts in Victoria and NSW.

According to the data provided to the Senate, one in five West Australian aged-care residents remained unvaccinated, even after being visited by federal government teams offering them the jab.

As of Friday, of the 38,322 residents in Queensland aged care, 6865 — or 18 per cent — ­offered a vaccination had not consented. In the NT a whopping 40 per cent of aged-care residents were unvaccinated, the Senate was told.

The refusal rate in NSW and Victoria was 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

Angela Raguz, chief operating and risk manager of HammondCare, which operates aged-care homes in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, said it was not unusual for people ­living in aged care to refuse treatments when they faced a health challenge, a decision that had to be respected.

“Some residents on the day they are to get their vaccination simply refuse to get it because they do not want an injection, or are simply not concerned about getting Covid-19 or dying,” she said.

Ms Raguz said in some cases the problem was not the residents but their families ­refusing to authorise their loved ones to be vaccinated.

But Labor’s spokeswoman on senior Australians and aged care services Clare O’Neil said the principal ­problem was not vaccine hesitancy but the “snail’s pace” of the aged-care vaccine rollout.

“Every country in the world faces the same issues with vaccine hesitancy – in leading countries, governments have rolled out engaging public health campaigns which ­explain why getting vaccinated is important,” she said.

Ms O’Neil said Australia would never get anywhere near herd immunity until the Morrison government sent a clear message about the urgency of getting vaccinated and created a public health campaign to support it.

A spokeswoman for Health and Aged Care Minister Greg Hunt said that 510 residential aged care facilities regulated and funded by the Commonwealth had received or been offered a first-dose Covid-19 vaccination clinic and 444 had also had their second-dose vaccination clinic.

“Residents may have a variety of reasons for not consenting to a vaccine … including choice, end-of-life care or that they were unwell at the time of the clinic. Unvaccinated residents can elect to receive a vaccine at any time,” she said.