The Department of Health’s National Incident Centre (NIC) has been acknowledged by the Department’s Minister for its leadership role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as it completes its second year of continuous operation.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt said that during this time the NIC frequently operated around the clock, performing many roles and adopting new ones in its response to the pandemic.
“The officials in the NIC have done, and continue to do, an incredible job in helping protect the lives and health of Australians,” Mr Hunt said.
“NIC staff have provided additional support to States and Territories; their support through contact tracing has resulted in more than 15,000 notifications to various authorities on the movement across borders of people with COVID-19 to date,” he said.
Mr Hunt said the NIC had been crucial in the use of a range of powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015, many of which had been used for the first time in preventing COVID-19 from entering Australia through international borders.
“In recent months, the focus has shifted to supporting the staged reopening of Australia to international travel,” he said.
“The NIC and the Office of Health Protection and Response have worked across Government to safely repatriate hundreds of thousands of Australians.
“The NIC has supported more than 450 COVID-19 meetings by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, which provides advice to National Cabinet on health protection matters and national priorities.
“It is also the primary means of communication with the World Health Organisation for public health events, including the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Minister said the NIC began what turned out to be two years of continuous operation as the National Incident Room in November 2019, in response to a measles outbreak in Samoa.
He said it then led the health response to the Black Summer Bushfires, followed by the White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand in early 2020, then the pandemic.
Mr Hunt said that at its peak, the NIC was staffed by 200 officers drawing on Agencies including the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australian Border Force.
He expressed heartfelt gratitude to the officials who had worked in the NIC over the past two years and the teams supporting them from across the Australian Public Service.
