The Australian federal government will mobilise 57,000 nurses and 100,000 health workers from the private sector in its fight against the Omicron strain of COVID-19. The government activated an agreement made in April 2020, which makes available private health workers to deal with the pandemic. “It’s a workforce which is skilled, planned, appropriate and available,” Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters on Jan. 18. “The states and territories will where necessary work directly with the staff and with the hospitals themselves, whether it’s the large part of the private hospital networks and it will be up to the states and territories to activate those, but we have activated them at the Commonwealth end,” he said. Hunt said the national medical stockpile, which includes PPE, will also be made available. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the health sector had been planning for “workforce pressure” since the beginning of the …