Page 2606 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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outstanding. If there is one good thing to have come out of the challenges and hardships we have faced since March 2020, it is how they have highlighted the remarkable strength and compassion of the Canberra community.
I present the following papers:
Coronavirus (COVID-19)—ACT Government Response—
Ministerial statement, 21 September 2022.
Update, dated 21 September 2022.
Status of the Public Health Emergency due to COVID-19—Chief Health Officer Report 30—August 2022, dated 29 August 2022.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MS DAVIDSON (Murrumbidgee—Assistant Minister for Families and Community Services, Minister for Disability, Minister for Justice Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (10.14): I would like to say a few words, if I can, about the amazing amount of work that has been done throughout our community to take care of each other over this period. Our aim throughout all of this has been to protect those who are most at risk while also supporting the mental health and wellbeing of people and their ability to continue their paid work to put food on the table and keep the rent paid.
Throughout this period new variants have emerged, and we have had the difficulty and complexity of implementing clear and consistent regulations across jurisdictions at times. But, with a lot of effort by a lot of people, we have managed to protect many more people than we might have otherwise. There have been times when NDIS providers have had cases within their services, and at times there have been more than 40 providers who have had cases at any given time, but as at 9 September there are no providers who have notified cases to ACT Health. This is, in part, due to ongoing work to ensure that people have PPE, are trained in how to use it properly, and have access to rapid antigen test kits so that we can ensure that people who may have been exposed to COVID are able to get tested quickly and easily.
I would like to thank CSD and ACT Health for their work in distributing more than 82,000 rapid antigen test kits to cover the gaps in distribution of those test kits by the NDIA and the commonwealth government, to make sure that people who are providing in-home disability care and aged care are able to continue their work where it is safe to do so. I would also like to thank NDS for their support in managing the workforce and coordinating to make sure that shifts were covered during difficult periods when many people had to be in isolation. I thank ACT Health and the Office for Disability for coordinating communications to NDIS providers so that they could understand what they needed to do to protect people. There was also a lot of great work done by our access and sensory clinic and Canberra Health Services to provide in-reach vaccinations to those people who are most at risk—and that work is ongoing.
Within AMC we have had a unique situation in our ability to contain outbreaks, with minimal transmission between people who are in the AMC. That is due to a lot of
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