Category Archives: Coronavirus

Australia Covid live update: Sydney to open walk-in AstraZeneca clinics as NSW records 145 cases; Victoria records 11; Queensland and SA record one new local case each

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NSW reports 145 local Covid-19 cases overnight; no lockdown announcement for Victoria today after 11 new local cases recorded; SA to lift lockdown from midnight tomorrow and another vaccine record. Follow the latest updates

Brittany Higgins has welcomed the government’s decision to accept all 10 recommendations of the Foster review into how federal parliament responds to serious incidents.

The government put out a press release announcing this earlier today.

I am so pleased to hear that all 10 recommendations of the Foster Review will be implemented.

These reforms, most notably the independent complaints mechanism, will ensure Parliament House is a safer workplace for all future employees. https://t.co/wNNkVy4y9D

Sydney Covid crisis could take months to recede if other outbreaks are anything to go by - depressing read (but with good charts) from @joshcnicholas looking at peaks and troughs of covid waves https://t.co/slr3A5O9gX pic.twitter.com/4zR7STbB3i

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Coronavirus live news: China reports highest cases since January; France adopts vaccine passports law

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China starts testing 9.3 million people in Nanjing as 76 new cases reported; French parliament adopts law despite protests

Virtual contact during the pandemic made many over-60s feel lonelier and more depressed than no contact at all, new research has found.

Many older people stayed in touch with family and friends during lockdown using the phone, video calls, and other forms of virtual contact. Zoom choirs, online book clubs and virtual bedtime stories with grandchildren helped many stave off isolation.

Related: Virtual contact worse than no contact for over-60s in lockdown, says study

More than 450 key workers with long Covid have told a cross-party parliamentary inquiry of their experiences of the condition, including struggles to return to work and lack of financial support, with one in 10 having lost their job.

Nurses, teachers, GPs, police officers and midwives were among those who shared their experience of long Covid, symptoms of which include debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and brain fog.

Related: Over 450 key workers with long Covid tell MPs of their struggles

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Tunisia president accused of staging coup after suspending parliament

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Kais Saied invokes emergency article of constitution after violent protests against country’s biggest party

Often touted as the lone success story of the Arab spring revolutions a decade ago, Tunisia is facing a critical challenge to its fledgling democracy after its president suspended parliament and dismissed his prime minister in what critics described as a coup.

Kais Saied, an independent without a party behind him, announced he was invoking an emergency article of Tunisia’s constitution late on Sunday night after a day of violent protests against the country’s biggest party, the moderate Islamist Ennahda movement.

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Over 450 key workers with long Covid tell MPs of their struggles

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Nurses, teachers, GPs and police officers among those to give evidence to cross-party inquiry

More than 450 key workers with long Covid have told a cross-party parliamentary inquiry of their experiences of the condition, including struggles to return to work and lack of financial support, with one in 10 having lost their job.

Nurses, teachers, GPs, police officers and midwives were among those who shared their experience of long Covid, symptoms of which include debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and brain fog.

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Virtual contact worse than no contact for over-60s in lockdown, says study

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Staying in touch with friends and family via technology made many older people feel more lonely, research finds

Virtual contact during the pandemic made many over-60s feel lonelier and more depressed than no contact at all, new research has found.

Many older people stayed in touch with family and friends during lockdown using the phone, video calls, and other forms of virtual contact. Zoom choirs, online book clubs and virtual bedtime stories with grandchildren helped many stave off isolation.

Continue reading...

Indonesia loosens Covid restrictions despite record deaths

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World Health Organization has called on government to impose tighter virus curbs

Indonesia’s government has said small businesses and some shopping malls can reopen despite warnings that loosening curbs could spark another Covid wave.

President Joko Widodo said measures imposed in early July would continue until 2 August as the Delta variant spreads across the country, which has been overtaking India and Brazil as the world’s virus epicentre.

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Covid live: UK health secretary apologises over ‘cower’ tweet; Indonesia extends virus restrictions

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Latest updates: Sajid Javid sorry for ‘poor choice of words’ after criticism from victims’ families; Indonesia has extended its Covid-19 restrictions by a week

That’s it from the blog today. Thank you for your time.

Italy reported seven coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday compared with five the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 4,743 from 5,140 on Saturday.
Italy has registered 127,949 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth-highest in the world.
The country has reported more than 4.3 million cases to date.

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‘Seriously ill’ young people in current Covid admissions, expert warns

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‘We have had people under 30 in intensive care,’ says Prof Adam Finn of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

Young people are getting “seriously ill” from Covid-19, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has warned, as he urged them to get vaccinated.

Prof Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol, said there have been close to 200 admissions, with a mean age of 40, in the city during the Delta variant wave. England’s remaining Covid restrictions were eased on Monday and pictures of crowded nightclubs, filled with revellers not wearing masks or social distancing, have raised fears among some experts that infections could surge among unvaccinated young people.

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Fears for Covid vaccine drive if second doses clash with boosters

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Risk that low take-up by young will lead to crunch as older people get third shot

Health experts have warned the government that it needs to increase efforts to ensure more young adults are vaccinated against Covid-19 – as a matter of urgency.

They fear the current low take-up of jabs among 18- to 25-year-olds could lead to a pile-up of vaccine campaigns in September, when other groups are scheduled to get booster injections and also to be inoculated against influenza. In addition, they argue that vaccines also have a crucial role to play in protecting young adults against long Covid, which is now recognised as a serious problem associated with the disease.

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Europe clamps down amid fears over rapid spread of Delta variant

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Governments are launching de facto vaccine passport schemes as they try to head off a summer Covid wave like the UK’s

With the school term finally over, Britons are flying to Europe in their tens of thousands, record levels for this Covid year. They are arriving in countries where the Delta variant paralysing Britain is just becoming dominant – and Europe is responding by clamping down.

Some countries have tightened border controls, with Malta barring entry to unvaccinated travellers and Germany bringing in stricter quarantine rules for people arriving from Spain and the Netherlands. More broadly, authorities from Greece to Italy and France to Portugal are bringing in what are effectively vaccine passports for a wide range of activities, although most are shying away from using that term, which has become incendiary.

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PM confirms extra doses of Pfizer vaccine – as it happened

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Scott Morrison confirms extra 85 million Pfizer doses; NSW records 141 new local cases and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s; too soon to tell if Victorian lockdown will end Tuesday as state records 11 new local cases. This blog has now closed

With that, we might leave you for the night.

I’ll see you bright and early on the blog Monday morning to kick start the next week of news.

Okay, here are the numbers on all the arrests and penalty notices to come out of the Syndey anti-lockdown protest so far.

NSW police say they have received more than 5,500 reports from members of the public, with 63 people arrested.

Thirty-five people – aged between 18 and 69 - were charged with various offences, including assault police officer in execution of duty, resist officer in execution of duty, wilfully obstruct officer in execution of duty and not comply with noticed direction...

Of these, 20 were refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court today [Sunday 25 July 2021].

Investigators are following up every report and have issued two court attendance notice and [penalty notices] to 16 people today.

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Sajid Javid’s advice to not ‘cower’ from Covid provokes backlash

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Bereaved families, Labour and Lib Dems all condemn health secretary, accusing him of insensitivity


Sajid Javid has provoked a wave of anger from families of the victims of Covid after he said people must no longer “cower” from the virus.

The health secretary announced on Saturday that he had made a “full recovery” from Covid-19 after falling ill eight days ago, and said: “Please, if you haven’t yet, get your jab, as we learn to live with, rather than cower from, this virus.”

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Brazilian protesters call for Jair Bolsonaro to be impeached

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Demonstrators in several cities denounce president for alleged corruption and Covid mismanagement

Protesters took to the streets in several Brazilian cities on Saturday to demand the impeachment of Jair Bolsonaro, the country’s far right president whose popularity has fallen in recent weeks amid corruption scandals against the backdrop of the pandemic.

This week, news broke that Brazil’s defence ministry told congressional leadership that next year’s elections would not take place without amending the country’s electronic voting system to include a paper trail of each vote.

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Tennessee radio host doubted and mocked vaccines – now he has Covid

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A conservative radio host in Tennessee who urged listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has changed track and called on listeners to get the shot, after contracting the virus and ending up in hospital in “very serious condition”.

Related: Fox News backs Covid vaccination – a pity no one told Tucker Carlson

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Coronavirus live: UK airports set for busiest weekend since pandemic; clashes at Sydney anti-lockdown protests

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Thousands of travellers will leave the UK this weekend as school holidays begin for millions

In the UK, discontent with the government’s self-isolation policy is growing as food industry bosses condemned changes to ease the “pingdemic” as “worse than useless”.

PA Media reports that hospitality leaders have warned of a summer of closures and train operators have been forced to cut services. The agency says:

There were increasing calls for Boris Johnson to bring forward his wider relaxation of quarantine rules for the fully vaccinated from 16 August as businesses were hampered by staff being told to isolate as coronavirus cases soar.

In a bid to calm the concerns of industry, ministers published a limited list of sectors whose double-jabbed workers are eligible to avoid isolation if they undergo daily testing before the wider easing of rules for England.

Tunisia suffered 317 deaths in the last 24 hours, its worst daily toll since the start of the pandemic, its health ministry has said.

According to Reuters, the ministry also reported 5,624 new cases, increasing concerns about the country’s ability to fight the pandemic, with intensive care units in hospitals completely full and a lack of oxygen supplies. The vaccination campaign is moving slowly. The agency reports:

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the daily death tally in Tunisia is now the highest in Africa and in the Arab world.

The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic has reached about 560,000, with more than 18,300 deaths, out of a total population of 11.6 million people.

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Atagi changes vaccine advice for Sydney – as it happened

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Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd says NSW will get additional 50,000 vaccines from national stockpile. This blog is now closed

And this is where we are going to leave the blog for today. It’s been breathless. Again.

The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has issued a statement on today’s protest. She says:

I am utterly disgusted by the illegal protesters in the city today whose selfish actions have compromised the safety of us all.

The protesters have shown utter contempt for their fellow citizens who are currently doing it tough.

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‘Eid was very different’: my fortnight watching South Africa descend into chaos

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Durbanites expected another lockdown, not isolation enforced by violence and looting. But as the city I love turned to ruin, I saw fear change to bravery and community spirit

The past week has been one of the most difficult of my life. My home descended into chaos. Durban, a holiday city with a melting pot of cultures and a diverse range of people who live and work here, came to a standstill as rioters took to the streets to spread chaos after the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.

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‘Heart-wrenching’: inside a hospital grappling with Delta and vaccine hesitancy

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As the variant tears its way through the US and vaccination rates plateau in the state, hospitals are experiencing a new wave of cases

Nurse Matt Robinson braced himself before pushing the heavy doors to the recently reopened Covid-19 ward at Methodist University hospital in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

This hadn’t been in the script. After over a year of continuous work with Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic, the burnout brought on by constant exposure to death and trauma, Robinson had hoped his job might return to normal.

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Boris Johnson wants to mimic Tony Blair’s project, say No 10 sources

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PM wants to echo Blair’s promise of an ‘opportunity society’ and energise those who feel left behind

Boris Johnson intends to mimic aspects of Tony Blair’s political project in the hope of winning over more voters in former Labour heartlands, Downing Street sources have revealed.

While the Conservatives’ 2019-intake MPs are more likely to model themselves on Margaret Thatcher than the former Labour prime minister, No 10 insiders said Johnson had been studying Blair’s approach.

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