Category Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus treatments: the potential ‘game-changers’ in development

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After positive clinical trials for antiviral drug Molnupiravir, it joins other medicines that have shown promise

The first clinical trial results showing a positive effect for a pill that can be taken at home has been hailed as a potential gamechanger that could provide a new way to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of Covid-19. Molnupiravir joins a growing list of medicines that have shown promise. Here are some of the main developments in treatments so far.

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Coronavirus live: one in 20 secondary school pupils in England had Covid last week – as it happened

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Figures on English schools come as infection levels remain high in UK; India measures in response to requirements imposed on Indians visiting UK

In England, NHS tests and scans are to be offered at football stadiums and shopping centres to help deal with the backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The health service is launching 40 “one-stop shop” diagnostic centres across England, which will carry out a wide range of health checks after referrals from GPs.

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Covid antiviral pill halves hospitalisations and deaths, maker says

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If approved, Merck’s drug would be first simple oral medication shown to be effective against coronavirus

An antiviral pill was found to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by half in patients newly diagnosed with Covid-19, according to results announced on Friday.

If approved, the drug made by the US firm Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics would be the first simple oral medication shown to be effective against Covid-19, which would mark a crucial advance in the fight against the pandemic. Other drugs, such as remdesivir, have been shown to be effective if given early, but all currently approved treatments need to be given as injections or IV infusions.

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Victoria Covid restrictions: Melbourne lockdown, curfew and regional Vic coronavirus rules explained

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Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews has announced a further easing of restrictions as the state reaches its 80% first-dose vaccination target. Here’s what you need to know about schools, travel, childcare and work

Melbourne restrictions eased slightly from Wednesday 29 September when Victoria hit its 80% first dose vaccination target.

The Moorabool shire and Shepparton were to enter seven-day lockdowns from 11.59pm on Friday 1 October.

Shopping for essentials;

Authorised work, if you cannot work from home, or education;

Exercise for up to four hours;

Caregiving, compassionate and medical reasons;

To get vaccinated.

Limited outdoor social interaction will be allowed.

Queensland

New South Wales

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Australian Capital Territory

Northern Territory

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Scottish Covid vaccine passport app hit by problems after launch

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NHS app needed to enter nightclubs, large events and for overseas travel, but users complain it does not work

Scotland’s Covid vaccine passport app is experiencing problems hours after its launch.

The app, which proves someone is fully vaccinated, is needed from Friday to enter nightclubs, large events and for overseas travel. But a number of users have complained it does not work and that the app cannot find their data.

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New York mandates vaccines for health workers – how will it play out?

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Some hospitals have experienced staff shortages after new rules went into effect – but the mandate appears to be working

Erie County Medical Center, a hospital in the western New York city of Buffalo, just recorded its highest single-day patient count ever – 553 patients in a facility licensed for 573 beds – but not because of an influx of Covid-19 cases.

Instead, hospital leaders said the caseload is the result of a New York state vaccine mandate – the first statewide “vaccinate or terminate” mandate to be implemented in the nation.

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Queensland Covid update: Premier says she would have ‘no qualms’ calling off NRL grand final – video

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Annastacia Palaszczuk says she would have no qualms calling off Sunday's NRL grand final after the state recorded two new locally acquired cases of Covid-19. Brisbane is set to host the rugby league decider between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Penrith Panthers on Sunday with an already reduced 75% capacity due to Queensland's latest outbreak. Both the premier and chief health officer Jeannette Young say they will not hesitate to call off the game if the outbreak worsens. Townsville in the state's north has been mooted as a possible replacement venue

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John Key calling New Zealand’s Covid response ‘North Korean’ isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s wrong | Brian Ng

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Irresponsible statements are fuel for those who falsely believe their rights have been taken away

When former prime minister John Key referred to New Zealand as a “smug hermit kingdom” in his widely disseminated op-ed, I thought it was pushing it a bit, but not completely off the mark – we closed our borders to outsiders, after all. What I didn’t expect was for him to start calling the government’s response “North Korean”. This isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s obviously wrong.

This is what North Korea’s been through: it closed its borders at the beginning of 2020, before most of the world put itself into lockdown. It stopped all shipments in and out of the country, including China, which is its largest trading partner and aid donor. Fishing in its surrounding waters and even salt harvesting was halted, for fear Covid may be transmitted that way. Foreign diplomatic staff left on one-way tickets: one group of Russians took a hand-powered rail cart out of the country.

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Flu and Covid jabs safe to be given at same time, study finds

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Clinical trial on joint flu, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccinations reported only mild to moderate side-effects

Flu jabs are safe to give at the same time as the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, according to the first clinical trial to investigate co-administering the shots in a single appointment.

While some people experienced more side-effects with certain combinations of flu and Covid shots, the ailments were mainly mild to moderate, the study found. The most common side effects included pain at the injection site and temporary fatigue, headache or muscle pain.

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Hydroxychloroquine sales spiked almost 100% in Australia at start of Covid pandemic, study finds

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There was also a rise in prescriptions for ivermectin being filled, despite no evidence either drug is effective against the virus

The amount of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin dispensed from Australian pharmacies increased significantly in 2020 as the Covid pandemic took hold, according to new research.

Analysis of six publicly subsidised drugs – including hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, corticosteroids and the common antibiotic azithromycin – found Covid-related changes in prescription patterns in Australia.

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Stark divide: disadvantaged areas of Victoria have worst Covid vaccination rates

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Age, disadvantage and reduced access are mixing together in lower socio-economic areas to create a perfect Covid cocktail

Some of Victoria’s lowest socio-economic areas are still lagging behind on Covid-19 vaccination rates as the wealthiest local government areas surge ahead, creating a stark divide across the state.

The disparity has community leaders and epidemiologists worried the virus will sweep through some suburbs when the state opens up, if the vaccination rate does not pick up in vulnerable areas.

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UK reports 36,480 new cases – as it happened

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Thanks for following along – this blog is now closed. You can catch up with the latest coronavirus coverage here.

Technology allowing Australians to travel overseas with an internationally recognised vaccine certificate will be ready within weeks, as the government prepares to announce a plan for the country’s borders to finally reopen.

In evidence to the Senate’s Covid committee on Thursday, the chief executive of Services Australia, Rebecca Skinner, said the department had developed a visible digital seal for vaccine status that would be ready by the end of October. She said:

Our plan is to have all of the technology in place so that it is a settled and tested situation before the policy decisions need to be made.

We don’t want to be in a situation where policy decisions can’t be taken because the technology isn’t ready.

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Victoria to cut Pfizer interval as cases surge to record high – as it happened

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NSW extends stay-at-home orders for 17 regional LGAs as state records 941 cases; South Australia records one local case; five Queensland areas including Brisbane and Gold Coast return to stage two restrictions. This blog is now closed

We are going to leave the blog there for the night.

Here’s what made news today:

Stay-at-home orders have been announced for the Kyogle and Narromine local government areas in New South Wales from midnight tonight until 11 October due to Covid cases in the area.

These restrictions will also apply to anyone who has been in the Kyogle LGA since 21 September and the Narromine LGA since 28 September.

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‘I’ll never go back’: Uganda’s schools at risk as teachers find new work during Covid

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Many private schools may not reopen after staff laid off during lockdown say they will not return to the profession

The last message Mary Namitala received from the private school in which she taught was in March last year, the day all schools in Uganda were ordered close due to Covid-19. The message read: “No more payments until when schools open.”

“My husband and I decided to leave our rented house in town and shifted to the village, to our unfinished house. We could not afford to continue paying rent,” says Namitala, from her home in Bombo in central Uganda, about 20 miles north of the capital Kampala.

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‘I’ve been dead so many times’: the life and times of New Orleans’s blues king

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Little Freddie King has survived three shootings, stabbings, a near fatal bike accident, a stomach ulcer, an accidental electrocution, Hurricane Katrina, and now a pandemic

In a dark, wood-panelled room, thick with humidity and reeking of smoke, the bluesman sits on a battered red couch that droops in the middle. He takes a moment to reflect before walking to the stage. He’s dressed in a pair of shades, a straw fedora, and a technicolor suit jacket splashed with turquoise, pink and peach. His flamboyance is an instant contrast with the dingy surroundings. He takes a final drag of a cigarette, down to the butt, before adjusting his tie.

Little Freddie King has played this venue – BJ’s Lounge, a ramshackle bar in the Bywater neighbourhood of New Orleans – for the past 27 years. But tonight is special. Tonight is his 81st birthday.

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Brazil hospital chain accused of hiding Covid deaths and giving unproven drugs

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Group of whistleblowing doctors gave 10,000-page dossier to investigators last month with allegations against Prevent Senior

One of Brazil’s biggest healthcare providers has been accused of covering up coronavirus deaths, pressuring doctors to prescribe ineffective treatments, and testing unproven drugs on elderly patients as part of ideologically charged efforts to help the Brazilian government resist a Covid lockdown.

Related: Trump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism

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How are Australia’s neighbours faring in the Covid pandemic?

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Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.

Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.

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Covid live news: UK reports 36,722 new cases as weekly deaths in Scotland highest since February

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Latest UK-wide case figures come as Scotland sees rise in hospitalisations

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is in advanced talks with vaccine manufacturers to purchase further vaccine doses for its members, Reuters reports.

The region recorded more than 26,000 COVID-19 related deaths last week – more than any other global region.

Health authorities in Greece have recorded a further 2,187 coronavirus cases, taking the cumulative total since the start of the pandemic to 653,535.

The National Organisation for Public Health said 44 patients have died from Covid-19, raising the total death toll to 14,795.

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YouTube to remove misinformation videos about all vaccines

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Streaming site cracks down on harmful content about all approved Covid jabs

YouTube is to remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, as it steps up a crackdown on harmful content posted during the coronavirus pandemic.

From Wednesday, the video streaming site, which has already banned Covid jab falsehoods, will take down content that contains misinformation such as claiming any approved vaccine is dangerous, causes chronic health defects or does not reduce spread of disease.

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The California region where Covid ‘just isn’t slowing down’

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The state has the country’s lowest case rate. But in the vaccine-resistant Central Valley and rural north, healthcare workers are pushed to the limit

California has the lowest coronavirus case rate in the country. But within the state, the agricultural Central Valley and rural north remain overwhelmed.

Resistance to vaccines and public health mandates, combined with the advance of the Delta variant, have triggered an explosion of cases that are pushing already strained public health systems to the brink. In some counties, the case rate per 100,000 people is three or more times that of the state.

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