“Australia has had one of the lowest levels of loss of life in aged care from the pandemic,” Mr Hunt said.

Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler,whose organisation represents the not-for-profit and church aged care homes,said the pause was understandable,if not ideal.

The government’s COVID-19 booster shot providers “couldn’t increase their work at exactly the time we needed the help”,Mr Sadler said. “But I would assume that they’re just experiencing what everybody in the whole of Australia,except Western Australia,has been experiencing.”

“What it shows is the exposure that older people in residential care have. The virus didn’t stop spreading during that period.”

Activist Sarah Russell,director of campaign group Aged Care Matters,said many families were anxious for their relatives in a home to get a COVID vaccine booster shot.

“The federal government outsourced the COVID booster rollout to private companies,” Dr Russell said,and then these companies “took holidays over the Christmas break”.

The Age revealed on Sunday that nearly 500 aged care facilities in Australia had COVID-19 exposures,placing tens of thousands of elderly residents in lockdown. There were 54 aged care outbreaks nationally shortly before Christmas,according to a federal government report released on December 17.

Hundreds of homes in Victoria have locked out families and confined residents to their rooms since the pandemic began. Many homes have had more than one outbreak.

Since the pandemic started in Australia in March 2020,information published daily by the federal government shows 933 aged care residents have died following a coronavirus infection. Of those deaths,798 were in Victorian homes.

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