Country to press ahead with school openings as it encourages all over-12s to get third jab
Israel has recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus cases with nearly 11,000 new infections, amid a surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant as schools prepare to re-open.
The previous high came on 18 January, with 10,118 cases.
Continue reading...The C.1.2 strain has scientists’ attention because it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest, like Delta
A new Covid variant detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world.
On Monday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate.
Continue reading...Singapore agrees to vaccine ‘dose swap’ with Australia; NSW confirms 1,164 cases and three deaths; lockdown extended to 17 September in ACT; Victoria records 76 new cases; AMA says vaccinations for healthcare staff must be mandatory. Follow the latest updates live
Andrew Leigh to Josh Frydenberg:
Gerry Harvey has now repaid $6 million in JobKeeper out of the $13 billion that went to companies with rising revenue. Gerry Harvey think it is money should be paid back. Why doesn’t the Treasurer?
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question as to the prime minister. Most economists expect the economic growth to slow in the June quarter and it is now going backwards in the September quarter. Why does the prime minister not take responsibility for the fact that Australia’s economic recovery was always hostage to his failures on vaccines and quarantine?
Australia is one of the few countries in the world that after the Covid-19 recession of last year saw our economy grow back to a level higher than it was before the pandemic started, and that is before Delta hit, and saw 1 million people, a million people get back into work.
That was the product of economic policies that not only provided significant, in fact unprecedented economic support, both to individuals who had lost hours and had been stood down, through jobkeeper but also through ... the many other measures that supported businesses to see their way through at a time. Particularly last year at the outset of Covid when the uncertainty was at such a level that it was like looking into an economic abyss. And so the certainty that was provided by the government that stepped in with the single largest economic intervention in Australia’s history. Gave businesses, gave families, gave individual employees the confidence to be able to get up the next day and see it through, and do it again, day after day, month after month.
Continue reading...Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said virus’ reproduction rate remained under one, meaning cases would continue to drop
New cases of Covid-19 have continued to drop in New Zealand, in a promising early indication that the country’s strict lockdown is working and its latest outbreak may be coming under control.
The country announced 49 new cases on Tuesday – dropping for the second day in a row, down from 53 cases on Monday and 83 on Sunday. It is the lowest number of new cases reported in the country in six days.
Continue reading...New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced 1,164 new cases of locally acquired Covid-19, and three more deaths. Intensive care nurse at Liverpool hospital, Michelle Dowd, described how physically and emotionally hard the work in ICU is caring for Covid patients. She said, 'These patients are some of the sickest we've ever seen. They require so much support and monitoring and physical care. We're in layers of PPE, sometimes for hours at a time'
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UK and international studies show the impact pandemic has had on health services and patients
The number of solid organ transplants fell dramatically around the world between 2019 and 2020, researchers have found, highlighting the widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health services and patients.
As the pandemic surged, hospitals were forced to delay potentially life-saving organ transplant surgery, because of resources such as intensive care beds being needed for Covid patients and because of concerns including whether it was safe to treat transplant recipients in hospital.
Continue reading...Hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums ‘at the edge of crisis capacity’
Two Oregon counties hit hard by Covid-19 are running out of space to hold bodies amid an intense surge in cases that is overwhelming the state’s healthcare system, forcing authorities to request refrigerated trucks to help handle the overflow.
In Josephine county, located in the state’s south-west, the local hospital is exceeding its body storage capacity and the area’s five funeral homes and three crematoriums are “at the edge of crisis capacity daily”, the county emergency manager told the state last week. Meanwhile, Tillamook county, on Oregon’s north-west coast, reported that its sole funeral home “is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity” of nine bodies.
Continue reading...Senior officials at the World Health Organization have cited stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries as reasons so many Covid deaths are predicted.
'Last week, there was an 11% increase in the number of deaths in the region – one reliable projection is expecting 236,000 deaths in Europe, by 1 December,' WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said.
Kluge attributed the higher transmission to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, an 'exaggerated easing' of restrictions and measures, and a surge in summer travel.
While about half of people in Europe are fully vaccinated, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed, Kluge said.
Europe has registered about 1.3 million Covid deaths
Travellers from Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia also affected by move
The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid “white list” of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.
A majority of EU countries had reopened their borders to Americans in June, in the hope of salvaging the summer tourism season although most required a negative test ahead of travel. The move was not, however, reciprocated by the US.
Continue reading...Europe has registered around 1.3 million Covid deaths to date; Philippines sees 22,366 new cases; New Zealand’s largest city sees curbs extended by two weeks
With the return to school in the UK imminent, the Welsh education ministry said on Monday that all schools, universities and colleges in Wales would be supplied with ozone disinfecting machines.
Once a room has been disinfected, the machine, each the size of a suitcase, converts the ozone back to oxygen. But ozone is so toxic that no one will be allowed inside the room when the machine is operating.
It is like the use of chlorine, you don’t want to be in an environment where chlorine is dispersed at high concentration. Ozone smells but people are not allowed to smell it. That is extremely important from a safety point of view.”
Related: Concerns over plan to disinfect classrooms in Wales with ozone
Britain has reported 26,476 new cases of Covid-19 between 24 August and 30 August, 1.8% increase on the previous seven days.
A further 48 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, taking the seven-day increase to 14.8%.
Continue reading...Machines to be used to clean up after Covid outbreaks part of £5.9m initiative to improve air quality
A £3.3m scheme to provide schools in Wales with machines that disinfect classrooms after a Covid outbreak has prompted calls for reassurance over their safety.
The Welsh education ministry said on Monday that all schools, universities and colleges in Wales would be supplied with ozone disinfecting machines for cleaning up Covid-hit classrooms.
Continue reading...Health body previously stated that boosters in Europe are unnecessary and will increase vaccine inequality
A booster jab of Covid-19 vaccine for vulnerable people is not a luxury but a good way to protect them, the World Health Organization has said, as surging infection rates and a pan-European vaccination slowdown produced a “deeply worrying” situation.
“A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab,” Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said on Monday. “It’s basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe.”
Continue reading...Kentucky senator tells constituents he is ‘in the middle’ on use of deworming medication FDA has implored Americans not to take
Federal researchers will not objectively study ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, the Kentucky senator Rand Paul claimed, because “hatred for Donald Trump” has tainted their view of those who say the drug used to deworm horses can aid the fight against the pandemic.
Related: Florida radio host who called himself ‘Mr Anti-Vax’ dies of Covid-19
Continue reading...PM’s assertion comes as national death toll since pandemic began surpasses 1,000 and states seek more Pfizer amid Delta outbreak
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has declared the government has “overcome” the challenges of the national vaccine program, despite the states crying out for more mRNA vaccine supplies to curb the Delta outbreak tearing through NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
The prime minister’s assertion came as the country marked the grim milestone of the first Indigenous death from a Covid-19 case, in western NSW, and as the national death toll surpassed 1,000 since the pandemic began in early 2020.
Continue reading...With a nationwide lockdown and some of the world’s strictest restrictions, Jacinda Ardern is counting on her people’s goodwill again
In locked-down New Zealand, life orbits around the 1pm briefing. As the home-bound nation digests its lunch, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield – frequently alongside prime minister Jacinda Ardern – takes the stage behind a socially distanced podium and updates the country.
In the midst of a Covid outbreak, those briefings occur almost every weekday. They are so clockwork-regular, so predictable in their essential structure, that certain sentences became memes: “Kia ora koutou katoa. There are X cases of Covid-19 in the community,” each begins. After the last outbreak, media outlet The Spinoff spliced together Bloomfield saying it 44 times.
Continue reading...After 18 months of remote learning, some students will re-enter classrooms as the capital sees a fall in coronavirus infections
After almost 18 months, children in Jakarta will begin to re-enter classrooms on Monday, as Indonesia, which faces on of the worst Covid outbreaks globally, eases restrictions in some areas.
Indonesia began gradually loosening its lockdown measures last week, allowing restaurants and places of worship to open their doorsat 25% capacity, and malls to operate at 50% capacity. The relaxed rules were introduced across several regions in Java and Bali , including greater Jakarta, greater Bandung and greater Surabaya.
Continue reading...Public indifference to abuse of the Pasifika community is especially concerning – we all need to show compassion in this crisis
The past week in lockdown has been tumultuous for many in my community. I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school when media outlets began reporting that New Zealand was headed for a possible level 4 lockdown, suggesting the Delta variant had breached our borders and there was a probable case in the community. By the time I arrived at the school, notifications were filling my messenger feed with supermarkets packed to the brim as the rush for toilet paper began. New Zealand went into full lockdown that night in its fight against Covid-19.
Within a matter of hours, news emerged that a person from the North Shore of Auckland had tested positive followed by people who had attended a large church gathering in south Auckland. Church plays a pivotal role in the Pacific community. It serves as a hub to express our faith, language and culture, where we reconnect with friends and family. It grounds us and allows us to recharge before we head back into a society that is different to what we knew in our home islands dotted around the Pacific.
Continue reading...Fears Sydney hospital ICUs are under extreme strain as nurses speak out about ‘hellhole’ conditions. Follow latest updates
Meanwhile, mRNA supplies should be increasing over the next couple of months, but older Australians who waited to have a choice could find themselves at the back of the queue:
Related: Older Australians at back of queue for mRNA vaccines despite Atagi advice to give them choice
Brisbane is getting its second mass vaccination hub, this time in the Boondall entertainment centre. That will open up on 8 September, and help take the pressure off the existing hub, which is in the city.
Continue reading...Decline in exports from Taiwan combines with port closures in China and Japan to hinder growth
A recovery in global trade during the summer is beginning to wane, according to some early warning signs pointing to the negative effects of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in the manufacturing centres of east Asia.
A dramatic decline in exports from Taiwan, which makes many of the computer chips used in cars and mobile phones, has combined with temporary port closures and lockdowns in Australia, China and Japan to cut the level of global trade.
Continue reading...This Has Gotta Stop lines include ‘I can’t take this BS any longer’ and follows negative comments about restrictions
Eric Clapton, a staunch critic of measures designed to tackle the Covid pandemic, has released a song entitled This Has Gotta Stop.
While the song does not directly mention lockdown measures or vaccines, the musician has performed on anti-vaccine songs in recent months. His latest offering has been interpreted by some as an attack on the measures recommended by health officials.
Continue reading...