Scrapping isolation for COVID-positive patients and boosting hospital funding will be on the agenda for a meeting between the prime minister and state leaders.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will host state and territory leaders at parliament house in Canberra on Friday, as pressure builds from business to further ease the five-day isolation period.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is calling for mandatory isolation to be scrapped, saying Australians needed to take personal responsibility for their actions.
“We need to get to the point where we move away from public health orders,” he said.
“It’s always a balance between the public health, broader health issues like mental health, social wellbeing and economic and financial issues facing people across our state.”
Mr Albanese has consistently said national consensus is needed for any changes, as happened when leaders decided to cut the isolation period from seven to five days.
The future of isolation payments would then need to be nutted out, with Mr Albanese saying they would remain available as long as isolation is mandatory.
Asked about a reported push by the states for more public hospital funding, Health Minister Mark Butler said the federal government had already extended pandemic support, which is due to expire on Friday.
This involved allocating an extra $760 million to the state hospital system until the end of the year.
The use of the defence force in the aged-care system will also end on Friday.
Defence Minister Richard Marles says the intervention was always meant to be temporary and could be wound back now there are fewer outbreaks after the winter peak.
“It is now time for Australian Defence Force resources to be directed into other areas of priority,” he said.
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said the support from the defence force had put the sector in a much stronger position.
She said the government has since boosted the workforce’s surge capacity, driven up vaccination rates and lifted the supply of anti-viral medications.
“This has been and continues to be an incredibly difficult time for older Australians, their families and carers, and for the workers and providers of aged care,” Ms Wells said.
National cabinet, which will also receive advice on flood risks and emergency planning, is due to receive a briefing from the chief medical officer as the weekly COVID-19 figures drop.
It comes after the Therapeutic Goods Administration granted provisional approval for a Pfizer COVID-19 booster for children aged between six months and five years.
The medical regulator last week also provided provisional approval to Pfizer’s booster for children aged between five and 11.
The latest weekly COVID-19 data will also be released by states and territories on Friday.
There were almost 45,000 infections recorded last week, with more than 200 deaths.
© AAP 2022
