Category Archives: Coronavirus

Jabbed adults infected with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’

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Researchers say implications for transmission remain unclear but reaching herd immunity even more challenging

Fully vaccinated adults can harbour virus levels as high as unvaccinated people if infected with the Delta variant, according to a sweeping analysis of UK data, which supports the idea that hitting the threshold for herd immunity is unlikely.

There is abundant evidence that Covid vaccines in the UK continue to offer significant protection against hospitalisations and death. But this new analysis shows that although being fully vaccinated means the risk of getting infected is lower, once infected by Delta a person can carry similar virus levels as unvaccinated people.

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WHO condemns rush by wealthy nations to give Covid vaccine booster

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Move likened to handing out life jackets to those who already have them while letting others drown

The World Health Organization has condemned the rush by wealthy countries to provide Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, while millions of people around the world have yet to receive a single dose.

Speaking before US authorities announced all vaccinated Americans would soon be eligible to receive booster doses, WHO experts insisted there was not enough scientific evidence to support the additional shot.

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US recommends Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine boosters – live

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Joe Biden will host Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett in Washington on August 26, the White House has just announced.

Students in Florida’s Broward County went back to school under a mask mandate today, even as their school board faced threats of severe penalties for defying Republican governor Ron DeSantis.

And school officials in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties planned to address the public health measure later Wednesday, hoping to reduce infections in classrooms.

In Miami, Florida’s largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students should be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week.

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‘A vocal group got its way’: Florida parents condemn schools’ lack of mask mandates

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Amid powerful resistance to mandates from Florida’s governor and his supporters, some parents are frustrated that others are ignoring safety protocols

In Pinellas county, Florida, Maggie, a mother of three, is sending her kids to school every day with two or three extra masks even if, in her fourth grader’s class, only a third of the children are wearing them. Just two days into the new school year, she received a call from school officials saying there were already five known cases of students with Covid-19.

“Based on my kids’ school, and the number of parents that have chosen to not mask their kids, it looks like we’re in the minority,” said Maggie, who asked to be identified by just her first name. “I think the voices who are very anti-mask are very loud.”

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Texas governor who opposed masks tests positive for Covid – video

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The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds. The Republican is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said. 

Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Paediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.

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Ardern’s Covid lockdown finds favour as New Zealand watches Sydney’s Delta disaster

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Asked what she would say to people who questioned the need for a level 4 lockdown, the prime minister responded with one word: ‘Australia’

To overseas eyes, going into national lockdown over a single case should have been a hard sell, even for an extraordinarily popular prime minister such as Jacinda Ardern.

But a disastrous outbreak of the Delta variant in Sydney has helped galvanise New Zealand’s “team of 5 million” – and across the country, the government’s tough strategy on Covid-19 has enjoyed widespread popular support.

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Senator Katy Gallagher’s daughter contracts Covid-19 at Canberra school – video

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The 14-year-old daughter of Labor senator Katy Gallagher has contracted Covid-19 at school in Canberra. Gallagher says she's now concerned for her unvaccinated teenage son who's quarantining at home with the family. She says children have been let down by the vaccination rollout and she's worried about her daughter's health

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Covid Australia live news update: NSW confirms 633 cases and three deaths; ACT records 22 and Victoria 24; New Zealand cluster rises to seven

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NSW confirms 633 cases and three deaths; Victoria records 24 new local cases as CHO says outbreak disproportionately affecting children; New Zealand cluster rises to seven cases. Follow all the day’s news

A second South Australian MP has been referred to an official investigator over allegations of bullying, AAP reports.

Treasurer Rob Lucas says he has referred allegations against Labor MP Tony Piccolo to the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said just a moment ago that expanding access to the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds was something being worked through.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese is pushing for a plan.

Parents worried about the effect that lockdowns are having on their kids are now more concerned than ever that their children might catch Covid.

And right now, Mr Morrison doesn’t have a plan for our kids to access a vaccine when it’s safe to do so.

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Growing New Zealand Covid cluster linked to Sydney Delta outbreak

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Jacinda Ardern warns of more cases as Auckland cluster grows to seven, marking New Zealand’s first local transmissions of Delta variant

New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to seven, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.

The country went into a snap level four lockdown – the highest level of restrictions – on Tuesday night, after detecting one case with no obvious links to the border. New Zealand has not had a level 4 lockdown in more than a year, and the case is the country’s first instance of Delta transmission in the community.

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Qantas mandates full Covid-19 vaccination for all its employees

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Frontline staff must be inoculated by 15 November, with remainder of staff given until 31 March

Qantas will require all of its employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as debate about mandatory vaccination in Australian workplaces intensifies.

By 15 November, all frontline employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers, will need to be fully vaccinated. All remaining employees will have until 31 March 2022 to get vaccinated.

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Texas governor Abbott, who fought mask mandates, tests positive for Covid

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Greg Abbott, who was vaccinated in December, is at least the 11th governor to contract the virus

Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.

Related: Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise

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Coronavirus live news: weekly deaths up by a third in England and Wales; Singapore prepares to reopen for business

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Covid mentioned in 527 deaths last week compared to 404 the week before; Singapore experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19

The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic, because of concerns over the spread of Covid.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months in office comes as Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection and death rates per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.

India has administered more than 8.8m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data showed, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.

India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554m doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944m adults. Only about 13% of the population have had the required two doses.

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Jacinda Ardern announces three-day lockdown after single Covid case – video

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New Zealand will go into a national lockdown on Tuesday night after detecting one case of Covid-19, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Tuesday. ‘Delta has been called a gamechanger and it is,’ Ardern said, adding that her government had ‘planned for this eventuality’.

Under level 4, all New Zealanders are asked to shelter in place in a ‘bubble’ that only includes their immediate household or dependents. They can only leave the house to buy food or medical supplies, to access medical care or for socially distanced exercise

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‘Spreading like a virus’: inside the EU’s struggle to debunk Covid lies

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Understaffed and underpowered, a Brussels taskforce tries to fight a fake news tide that threatens to undermine the union itself

In April 2020, near the start of the global pandemic, Felix Kartte was working 14-hour shifts as an EU policy officer, struggling to monitor a barrage of coronavirus-linked disinformation.

Articles claiming that the pandemic was a hoax, that it was caused by 5G, that it could be cured by hydroxychloroquine or alternative medicine were going viral across the continent – part of a global phenomenon the World Health Organization warned was becoming an “infodemic.” Kartte and colleagues in StratCom, the EU diplomatic service’s strategic communications division, could detect what they say were patterns of Covid-denier and anti-vaxxer disinformation linked to Russia and to a lesser extent China, being disseminated in several languages across Europe.

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New Zealand to go into national lockdown over one Covid case

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PM Jacinda Ardern warns this is ‘only chance’ to stop spread of suspected Delta variant

New Zealand will go into a national lockdown on Tuesday night, after detecting one case of Covid-19.

The entire country will be at alert level 4 – the highest level of lockdown – for at least three days from midnight, and the regions of Auckland and Coromandel for four to seven days.

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‘Masks work’: experts on how to navigate Delta when you’re vaccinated

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The vast majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, but health experts say everyone should exercise caution

The Covid-19 vaccine was supposed to bring life back to normal. Then came the Delta variant.

Real-world data collection continues, but it’s clear that the vaccines do offer significant protection against becoming infected by Delta. They offer even greater protection against severe illness: Among states that are reporting breakthrough cases of Covid-19, fully vaccinated people made up no more than 5% of overall hospitalizations.

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Australia Covid live news: NSW to give update; Victoria records 24 cases; nation on edge as more than 13 million under lockdown

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Victoria records 24 local cases as state wakes to tougher restrictions; NSW warned cases could hit 1,000 a day; ACT and parts of NT under lockdown. Follow all the day’s news

We are now just waiting for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to step up for the daily Covid-19 press conference where we learn the state’s daily numbers.

We are expecting that in about 10 minutes, so stay tuned.

Sydney radio station 2GB is reporting a staff member from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Syndey has tested positive to Covid-19 and may have been infectious while working.

A staff member at RPA Hospital in Sydney has tested positive to COVID-19. The worker was fully vaccinated but potentially infectious while working on August 10, 11, 12 + 13 in the nuclear medicine department. There has been no transmission to other staff or patients to date.

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Japan’s economy bounces back as Covid restrictions ease

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Economic output defies expectations to expand in Q2 – but analysts warn of contraction risk

Japan’s economy recovered strongly in the second quarter to join the turnaround seen across G7 countries as the easing of lockdown restrictions sent consumers rushing to the shops.

Beating the expectations of City analysts, the world’s third largest economy also capitalised on global trade’s return to health with a surge in exports.

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‘We aren’t all dumb hillbillies’: how Covid caused a rift in country music

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Country stars such as Jason Isbell have received backlash for insisting on safety at their concerts, exposing an age-old political divide

The Covid-19 culture war has a new front: country music. Be it the Nashville establishment or up-and-comers in adjacent roots, folk and Americana genres, numerous artists are taking a stand about concert pandemic precautions, often along partisan lines. Jason Isbell has become one of the most prominent musicians to step into the fray. The Grammy-winning independent alt-country artist – who has released acclaimed albums like Southeastern and last year’s Reunions – rowed with some venues and vitriolic Twitter users, while also eliciting praise, after announcing on 9 August that proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or a negative test was mandatory for his show-goers.

“We have the ability to limit the number of people who get sick. So I can handle pushback from anyone refusing that, because I believe I am correct,” Isbell said.

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Texas mask mandate ban can stay as Covid court challenges proceed

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• State supreme court temporarily backs governor’s order

• Local hearings in Dallas and San Antonio aim to protect children

The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court ruled on Sunday.

Related: Texas anti-vaxxers’ calls for personal freedom dismiss my nearly fatal bout with Covid

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