No forced aged-care staff Covid-19 jab

National cabinet is set to reject a proposal to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all aged-care workers.

Two workers at the Arcare Maidstone nursing home in Melbourne’s northwest tested positive for the virus this week.

National cabinet is set to reject a proposal to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all aged-care workers.

The meeting on Friday will discuss the issue after a week of intense political pain for the Morrison government over its handling of aged care during the pandemic, triggered by two nursing home residents and two care workers being infected in the ­latest Melbourne outbreak.

It is believed mandatory vaccin­ation of aged-care workers won’t be endorsed by the federal and state governments.

National cabinet is expected to accept the advice of the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee, which has again recommended against mandatory vaccination.

The AHPPC recommended against the move earlier in the year on the basis that workers should retain the individual freedom to choose whether to be vaccinated, and amid concerns a shortage of workers in the sector might emerge if it were enforced.

There was also a lack of international evidence about whether being vaccinated was effective against transmitting the virus between worker and resident.

That original advice was provided earlier in the year at a time of low case numbers, so there was some thought that the panel’s thinking might have shifted as Melbourne faced a significant new outbreak.

Scott Morrison told parliament on Thursday the expert medical advice hadn’t changed. “At this stage the AHPPC … have not recommended that aged-care worker vaccinations be made mandatory,” the Prime Minister said. “They have not made it previously, and my advice is that it is unlikely to be made mandatory on their recommendation either. It is a matter that will be further considered by national cabinet tomorrow.

“This is an important issue for us to consider.”

The aged-care issue reignited on Monday after two workers at the Arcare Maidstone nursing home in Melbourne’s northwest tested positive for the virus in that city’s latest outbreak, along with a 99-year-old resident.

One worker had received one Pfizer shot, but the other was unvaccinated. A second resident at the facility was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Wednesday. Both residents have been hospitalised but remain asymptomatic.

It also emerged on Monday that the federal government’s system introduced at the height of the pandemic last year to prevent aged-care workers being employed at more than one home had quietly ended in Nov­ember, to be reintroduced only if a hotspot was declared.

And Senate estimates during the week revealed a slow vaccine rollout to nursing home residents and aged-care workers, despite the government in January listing them as category 1(a), top priority for vaccination.

The government conceded on Tuesday it did not know the total number of aged-care workers vaccinated so far. Aged Care Minister Greg Hunt told parliament on Wednesday only about 17 per cent, or 40,000, had been vaccinated through commonwealth programs, but it had no method to collect information about workers receiving vaccin­ations via other methods.