Australia’s top health bureaucrat has defended the nation’s aged care coronavirus death rate, dismissing “very misleading” royal commission evidence.

Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy angrily hit back at suggestions the federal government is still lacking an adequate plan for outbreaks in the besieged sector.

Counsel assisting the aged care royal commission Peter Rozen QC launched a scathing attack on aged care preparedness this week.

He said almost 70 per cent of Australia’s coronavirus deaths were among nursing home residents, making it one of the highest rates in the world.

Professor Murphy, who is the former chief medical officer, described it as an extraordinary interpretation of statistics.

“It’s been an awful situation, but to interpret a percentage of an extremely low death rate as an example of poor aged care management is simply not defensible,” he told a Senate hearing in Canberra on Friday.

“We find that a very misleading conclusion and we reject that it represents a pejorative assessment of our aged care.”

More than 200 of Australia’s 375 coronavirus deaths have been linked to aged care.

Professor Murphy said 0.1 per cent of Australians in aged care had died from the virus, while the figure was around five per cent in the UK.

“Unfortunately, there is not a country in the world that’s had community transmission the size of Victoria that’s been able to avoid substantial aged care outbreaks and deaths,” he said.

“One of the most tragic consequences of COVID-19 is its effect on the elderly.”

On Thursday, Mr Rozen said the sector was without a proper plan despite March outbreaks in Sydney facilities and the ongoing wave in Victoria.

“The federal government, which has sole responsibility for aged care, was firmly on notice early in 2020 about the many challenges the sector would face if there were outbreaks of COVID-19,” he said.

Professor Murphy said it appeared Mr Rozen had already reached many of his conclusions before hearing any evidence at the inquiry.

He pointed to $850 million in federal funding for aged care which went to training, personal protective equipment, testing and rapid response teams.

“We can always look at what we could have done better but we did a lot of of preparation,” he said.