Sunrise host David ‘Kochie’ Koch has lost his cool during a fiery interview with Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck.

The morning show star took aim at the federal government’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, after it was revealed that a rule banning private residential aged care staff from working at numerous sites was overturned quietly in November.

Earlier this week, it was also revealed that out of the 596 aged care facilities in Victoria under the care of the federal government, 29 are yet to record a single vaccination.

On Wednesday morning’s episode of Sunrise, Kochie asked Colbeck if he was “embarrassed” by the slow rollout and decisions that had been made.

“You would have thought that the rules to stop aged care staff from working on multiple facilities, which was the rule until November, would have continued.”

“Why was the rule dropped, why was it changed?” he asked.

Colbeck maintained that there were a “couple of reasons” for the change, including that it is “not legal to limit somebody around their working circumstances.”

He went on to say the rule banning aged care staff from working at multiple homes, was made to be reintroduced each time there is “community transmission” and when an area is declared a “hot spot.”

Kochie responded by asking: “but why wouldn’t you have kept it going until every aged care facility was fully vaccinated?”

“You didn’t think it would come back? You didn’t think aged care facilities would be vulnerable again?”

“Because the health advice that we had was to put it in place while there was a hot spot, and that was what we have done,” Mr Colbeck said.

The Sunrise host went on to quiz the Minister on why all aged care residents and staff members had not yet been vaccinated.

“The Prime Minister shed tears over this, a lot of people are thinking they’re crocodile tears because not even the workers in aged care facilities which I thought are classed as front-line workers, have been vaccinated fully,” he said in reference to Scott Morrison’s press conference where he became teary eyed in light of the aged royal care commission report being released.

Colbeck said: “Kochie, we’re all concerned about the circumstances particularly in Victoria right now.”

“We all are concerned with respect to ensuring that we get the workforce vaccinated and that’s why we made them a priority, as well as the residents.”

Colbeck said the vaccine rollout was a “huge logistical exercise.”

“We’ve completed our first round of doses apart from just a few inside 14 weeks, I think that’s an exceptional effort.”

Image: Channel 7