Preventing Victoria's second wave would have saved lives in aged care: Colbeck

"The thing that would have saved lives is the prevention of the escape of COVID-19 in Victoria, leading to the second wave, that's the thing that could have saved lives," he said.

In Australia, 216 residential care facilities have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak and 2049 aged care residents have contracted the virus. Victoria accounted for the bulk of those cases, with 1986, followed by NSW with 61, and one each in Queensland and Tasmania.

To date, 683 people who were in residential aged care have died with COVID-19, as well as eight people receiving home care.

The failures in aged care have been the subject of a fierce political stoush, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews emphasising the federal government's role in funding aged care and regulating standards, while Canberra has pointed the finger at Victorian health authorities.

Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy told Tuesday's hearing as community transmission in Victoria rose, it also grew in residential aged care settings.

"That is the single most important factor in aged care outbreaks and deaths, there's no question in my mind about that," he told the committee.

Professor Murphy said there were two factors that lead to Victoria's second wave of community transmission: infection control breaches in hotel quarantine, and the fact the Victorian health system became overwhelmed.

"They became unable to deal with the contact tracing and isolation and quarantine in a timely and appropriate manner; they had a lot of delays and that led to further spread," he said.

Staff infections

Senator Colbeck told Tuesday's hearing 2194 aged care staff in Victoria had contracted the virus and all but three had since recovered.

Of that number, 924 were personal care workers and 80 per cent of them contracted it at work. By comparison, 922 nurses had contracted coronavirus, with 79 per cent of them getting infected at work.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert questioned Senator Colbeck about his past assertion that aged care workers brought the infections to work, given that the majority caught the virus while on the job.

"It might have been one or two staffers who brought the virus in," he said. "Not only have they infected residents but they [then] infected some of their co-workers."