Unannounced visits by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission are one of the major ways the regulator ensures facilities are keeping up the standards required to keep residents safe.

The government and the commission have been under fire over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, where the death toll from the virus has ticked over 650.

More than 460 of those deaths have been in aged care, leading to the opposition to call for the resignation of Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck, who defended his record in the Senate again on Tuesday.

Earlier this week Senator Colbeck said the quality and safety commission had "paused" unannounced visits in March under medical advice, but on Tuesday deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd said no such advice had been sought from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

"I'm not aware of the AHPPC being asked for advice about whether there should have been any cessation of visits by the visitors from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission," he said.

"It is important though, that visits do take place in person so that people are able to see for themselves that each facility is doing everything it can and should be doing to protect the health and wellbeing of the residents in those facilities."

Figures released by the commission show there were no unannounced visits in the ACT for three months between April and June this year, and just eight between January and August. In the same period last year there were 23, 11 of which were in February.

In January and March last year there were no unannounced visits at aged care centres in Canberra.

While the number of unannounced visits has dropped dramatically, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said there had been seven "short-notice visits" between March and August to aged care centres in Canberra, where less than 48 hours notice was given that there would be an inspection.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic the commission has adjusted its regulatory activities to minimise infection risks for residents, staff and its own employees in line with the latest advice from the Department of Health and other health authorities," Ms Anderson said.

The commission was also responding to specific complaints about facilities and using that as "an important source of regulatory intelligence," Ms Anderson said.

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Labor senator for the ACT Katy Gallagher said unannounced visits were even more important during the pandemic, when many facility's were in lockdown and families couldn't visit their loved ones.

"It's not clear who decided that unannounced visits would cease for a time and why the Minister for Aged Care allowed that to happen," she said.

"There are serious questions that need to be answered about what has happened here including whether the regulator is up to the task of keeping older Australians safe in aged care homes."

Labor moved to censure Senator Colbeck as Aged Care Minister on Tuesday, but the attempt to bring on the censure motion was lost 26 votes to 24.

"This is a motion which goes to the failure of this minister to take responsibility for the devastating crisis in the aged care sector, which has caused death, grief and untold trauma for vulnerable Australians and their families," Labor Senate leader Penny Wong said.

The government's leader in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, accused Labor of using the tragedy in aged care as a "political weapon".

"It is a sad reflection on the Labor Party under the leadership of Anthony Albanese. You should collectively be ashamed of yourselves," he said.