The federal government is facing heavy scrutiny for vaccination rates among Arcare Maidstone residents and staff, as well as other private-run facilities.
Health Minister Greg Hunt on Monday said Prime Minister Scott Morrison and he had asked the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) to reconsider the matter.
Mr Hunt has asked Professor Kelly and the expert medical panel to revisit its advice from January that vaccinations should not be mandatory for aged care workers.
"That was not recommended at the time and we have asked the medical expert panel to review precisely that question," he said.
Department of Health Secretary Euan Wallace has also reportedly recommended that all aged care employees working directly with residents should be vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19, comparing it to healthcare vaccination requirements, according to .
"The expectation is that all high-risk-facing healthcare workers are vaccinated for both flu and COVID," he said.
Friday's national cabinet meeting of Mr Morrison and state and territory leaders will consider the fresh advice.
Federal MP Bill Shorten, whose electorate of Maribyrnong takes in the Maidstone facility, said workers in both the public and private systems should have been vaccinated by now.
"It is disgraceful that residents and aged-care workers and the same with people with severe disabilities and disability workers have not yet been vaccinated," Mr Shorten told Nine Network on Tuesday.
"The anxiety on people is shocking."
Victoria is on tenterhooks, , including six previously reported infections. The new cases take the total number of infections linked to the outbreak to 54.
Two of the new infections are close contacts of previously confirmed cases, while the third remains under investigation.
Health authorities are facing an uphill battle to contain the virus, with more than 4,200 close contacts of positive cases and almost 330 potential exposure sites identified.
There are particular concerns over four cases of "stranger-to-stranger" transmission, COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said, referring to incidents where the virus was transmitted between people who were not in close contact.
A seven-day "circuit breaker" lockdown across the state is currently scheduled to lift at midnight on Thursday.
The Victorian government also announced a 5-day "vaccine blitz" that will target aged care workers, disability care staff, and people with disability in residential care.
From Wednesday to Sunday, workers from these vulnerable sectors will be able to jump the queue at walk-in vaccination hubs across the state amid concerns over the speed of the rollout.
It comes after it emerged on Monday the federal government scrapped a requirement for aged care workers to only work at one facility in November last year.
Despite Victoria's concerning outbreak, the rule wasn't reinstated until the Commonwealth designated Melbourne as a coronavirus hotspot on Thursday.
Mr Hunt said about 4.7 per cent of aged care staff had worked across multiple sites as he stressed the importance of flexibility in periods without outbreaks.
A resident at the Arcare Aged Care facility in Maidstone reacts to media from her window, in Melbourne, Monday, 31 May, 2021. Source: AAP
He said case numbers were the main factor in determining whether the single-site rule was in place.
"That is something that has been well established in consultation with the states, and so once that was reached then the definition was triggered," Mr Hunt said.
Labor's health spokesman Mark Butler was scathing of the decision to lift the ban in November.
"This latest outbreak in aged care is a direct result of Scott Morrison's gross negligence and dangerous complacency," he told reporters in Canberra.
"If today's events don't convince Scott Morrison and his ministers that a speedy, effective vaccine rollout is a race, a race against this virus, a race against the variants of this virus, in particular, I don't know what will."
Mr Hunt said a vaccinated 99-year-old woman, who is now in hospital, had contracted the disease at the Arcare home in Melbourne's west but had not shown symptoms.
A second resident, 95, has been retested on medical advice.
Of Australia's 910 coronavirus deaths, 685 have been aged care residents.
More than 4.2 million vaccine doses have been administered, a target the government initially set for March.
