Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I committed during question time to provide some information for Senator Keneally with respect to Epping Gardens. And I do just want to confirm that there are 126 facilities in Australia with an active case; they are all in Victoria.

Epping Gardens—from the information that I've been given—had its first indication of an outbreak on 19 July. These are DHHS figures, which actually count contacts that are not part of the facility—they're not staff or residents. I indicated that I didn't think there were any with more than 100 residents in an outbreak. Epping Gardens in fact had 100 residents that were infected, it had 82 staff, and there are what DHHS classify as '29 other'. I don't know what the 'other' means at this point in time. That's a DHHS classification, which, through the Victorian aged-care recovery centre, we are working to properly define. We believe it means family members and other contacts of the infection at the facility.