Prime Minister Scott Morrison is calling in the Australian Defence Force to help nursing homes deal with surging Omicron cases.
About 1700 personnel will be freed up and sent to each state and territory to bolster the existing workforce.
“Today we were able to agree a package of measurexjmtzyws that will see the Australian Defence Force supporting that effort that's been led by the Department of Health,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Mr Morrison said up to 10 teams of ADF personnel would give “targeted support” in aged care, where nursing homes were facing “extreme situations”.
But he was keen to stress the ADF is not a “surrogate workforce”.
“The idea that the defence forces could just simply come in and fill that gap is just not realistic. And was never a scenario or an option that was under consideration because it's just simply not feasible,” he said.
There are up to 285,000 workers in the aged care sector.
