The Federal government has announced it will spend a further 1.4 billion dollars on Australia’s COVID response measures. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said that this investment was to help protect some of the most vulnerable in the community.
While the funding will be used to extend a number of COVID measures, the majority will be used to support the aged care sector, including financial support for providers and funding for COVID tests, medications and protective equipment.
“The aged care support program has been providing funding support to aged care facilities to deal with the costs of the outbreak for some time, in particular that provides support to aged care facilities with the impact of COVID outbreaks on their staffing needs… We need to provide additional funds over the course of the rest of the year to secure aged care, and we’ve committed an additional $810 million to the aged care support program for the remainder of 2022,” the minister said.
The government is also extending the program to allow PCR testing to be conducted in aged care facilities and provided within, at the most, a 24-hour turnaround. This was due to expire next week. “We’re extending that program to the end of the year as well and the cost of about $35 million.”
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Other measures also include the continuation of rapid antigen testing (RAT) program for vulnerable Australians, which again was due to expire next week.
To take the pressure off hospitals, there will be around 100 general practice respiratory clinics continuing to operate, which otherwise would close next week, for the remainder of the year. Over the course of June and July, for example, these respiratory clinics saw about 200,000 patients either face to face or on telehealth, either to treat them, to prescribe antiviral treatments, or to test them for COVID, Butler said.
In the area of primary care, the government is extending the long telephone consultation for GPs as well to allow them to conduct long telephone consults for the purpose of prescribing antivirals for their patients as well.
The Indian Sun acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government.
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The Federal gov has announced it will spend a further 1.4bn dollars on Australia’s #COVID response measures. Federal Health Minister @Mark_Butler_MP said that this #investment was to help protect some of the most vulnerable in the community. #TheIndianSunhttps://t.co/NFbFOGyZCh
— The Indian Sun (@The_Indian_Sun) September 20, 2022
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