It was an "omission" that people with disabilities were not mentioned in the Government's COVID-19 emergency response plan, a senior bureaucrat has told a royal commission.
The Royal Commission into Disability is investigating the impact of coronavirus on the disability community and the Federal Government's response.
Simon Cotterell, Assistant Secretary from the Department of Health told the commission, staff worked under immense pressure to prepare the action plan, but that people with disabilities were left out.
"It was prepared very quickly and under great pressure by staff conscientiously doing their very best. I think it is an omission that disability is not mentioned .... but the word 'vulnerable groups' is used," he said.
"The intention of using that language in that context is vulnerability to the virus whether it is exposure or severe impacts of the virus and via that mechanism people with disability would be covered.
"But I think it is an omission that they weren't specifically mentioned and in a number of places it would be useful for people with a disability to have been mentioned."
The commission heard that there was no single area in the department that had responsibility for the health of people with disabilities.
"We were all very busy focusing on what we could do to respond to the pandemic," Mr Cotterell said.
Mr Cotterell also said there was no exact data on the numbers of people with disabilities who had contracted COVID-19 or who had died from the virus.
"We don't know, but there is some data that the NDIS commission collects from notification from NDIS service providers. But we don't know, we don't have a full picture," he said.
The Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth also gave evidence, and told the hearing developing an aged-care response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a higher priority than making a plan for people with disabilities.
Dr Coatsworth told the commission that of the 4.4 million people in Australia that have identified as having a disability, not all of them would be considered as being vulnerable to the virus.
He said in the initial stages of the pandemic, the aged-care sector was a higher priority.
"We already knew that age was the, not a, the most significant risk factor for Covid-19 mortality," he said.
He said that the plans that were prepared for aged care facilities would then be applied to other facilities like prisons, military barracks and residential care homes.
When questioned by counsel assisting Karen Eastman SC about why there was no specific data on people with disabilities who have contracted or died from COVID-19, he said it "wasn't collected because it would not have had a difference in the initial emergency response to the outbreak of the pandemic".
The royal commission has heard evidence that 76 people with disabilities registered with the NDIS had contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Eight of those people have died.
