Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Jeroen Weimar, the Victorian Covid commander, says Victoria has shifted its AstraZeneca vaccine appointments for 50-59 year olds to Pfizer in line with the new advice:
People who had a confirmed appointment forAstraZeneca, that will now be a Pfizer appointment and we have contacted them to make sure they are comfortable with that. I would urge anyone who has had their first dose of AstraZeneca to please come forward when your time is due for your second dose of AstraZeneca. We will continue to assess options with the commonwealth around the long-term implications for the program.
Greg Hunt will hold his press conference with Lieutenant General John Frewen at 1pm
In a significant change of approach from last summer, the government is minded to let companies make their own decisions – a strategy that could lead to conflict and confusion among staff.
Holidaymakers should not pin their hopes on a slew of extra countries being added to the quarantine-free green list when it is updated later this month, government sources have warned.
With ministers monitoring data daily on the spread of the Delta variant, after stage four of the reopening roadmap was postponed by a month to 19 July, Whitehall insiders say the mood remains extremely cautious.
After Russia offered cars, Washington state spliffs, Indonesia live chickens and Hong Kong the chance of a £1.2m apartment, the latest country to reward people who show up for their Covid shots is the Netherlands – with soused herring.
Early batches of Hollandse nieuwe, or new-season Dutch herring, a traditional delicacy consumed to the tune of 75m a year, are being distributed to vaccination centres around the country as an encouragement for people to get their jabs.
Previous infection with coronavirus does not necessarily protect against Covid in the longer term, especially when caused by new variants of concern, a study on healthcare workers suggests.
Researchers at Oxford University found marked differences in the immune responses of medical staff who contracted Covid, with some appearing far better equipped than others to combat the disease six months later.
AstraZeneca vaccine now recommended for over-60s;Sydney’s eastern suburbs cluster grows; Victoria records no new local cases. Follow the latest updates live
Does the acting Prime Minister agree that no adult worker should be paid less than the minimum wage?
Well, Mr Speaker, as I said in my previous answer, we’re operating under the same conditions for wages, for industrial relations, and was established by the then Labor government. And the government’s record and I appreciate that whilst he didn’t mention this in his question, but it’s talking about worker exploitation and wage underpayment, and we have zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers.
And that includes the underpayment of wages and entitlements by any employer. We have zero tolerance. And the government has taken unprecedented action to protect vulnerable workers. Since 2016...
We have committed more funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman, strengthened their investigative powers to compel witnesses to provide evidence, and increased penalties up to 10 fold for worker exploitation.
People who work should be paid a fair and decent wage.
Tony Burke asks Michael McCormack about a woman named Kate, who took a job picking fruit, on ‘piece rates’ (a common way fruit pickers are paid) and was forced to find food in supermarket garbage bins, as she couldn’t afford food, despite working seven days a week.
McCormack starts talking about the minimum wage. Which this woman doesn’t receive (something Burke points out)
I take the member for Watson’s point. But we are operating under the same system of wages and industrial relations that we did when Labor were in government. And indeed, and indeed - there was a wage decision case made this week, this week.
As he said, we have had - we’ve got an industrial relations framework which reflects what was introduced by the previous government.
And Mr Speaker, I make it very clear our government has zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers. And is committed to ensuring that workers have the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the Australian economy, without the fear of exploitation. We have the highest minimum wage in the world, and we have extensive safeguards in place.
Analysis: Lockdown extension brings questions on when and how UK can draw a line under social distancing
The Commons vote to delay step four of England’s roadmap out of lockdown has focused attention on when and how the country can draw a line under social distancing and, in the words of the prime minister, “learn to live with the virus”.
While the surge in cases in Blackburn – one of the original Delta variant hotspots – may have peaked for now, Public Health England expects recent rises in the north-west to be mirrored across the UK. What that means for hospitals and lives will become clearer in the next four weeks.
German biotech CureVac NV said on Wednesday its Covid-19 vaccine was only 47% effective in a late-stage trial, missing the study’s main goal and throwing in doubt the potential delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to the European Union, Reuters reports.
The disappointing efficacy of the shot known as CVnCoV emerged from an interim analysis based on 134 Covid-19 cases in the study with about 40,000 volunteers in Europe and Latin America.
The stakes for CureVac and prospective buyers of its vaccine in Europe had risen after age limits were imposed on the use of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines due to a link to extremely rare but potentially fatal clotting disorders.
CureVac’s shot was also expected to help in low and middle-income countries that have lagged far behind richer nations in the global immunisation drive.
As CureVac’s only major supply deals, the European Union in November secured up to 405 million doses of the vaccine, of which 180 million are optional. That was followed by a memorandum of understanding with Germany for another 20 million doses.
CureVac’s US traded shares fell 50.6% to $46.81 in after-hours trading following publication of the data.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan plans to lift Tokyo’s virus emergency on June 20, a month before the Olympics, the government announced Thursday as reports said only 10,000 spectators would be allowed at Games events.
White River First Nation had sought six months in jail for Canadian millionaires Rodney and Ekaterina Baker
The millionaire Canadian couple who chartered a private plane to a remote community and jumped the coronavirus vaccine queue to receive doses intended for elderly Indigenous people have been fined C$2,300 but were not sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to breaking public health rules.
The size of the fine imposed on the former casino executive Rodney Baker and his wife, the actor Ekaterina Baker, on Wednesday prompted frustration amid members of the White River First Nation, many of whom wanted the couple to face stiffer repercussions.
France and Spain are moving to ease rules around wearing face masks outside, in a development attributed by both countries to their Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.
In France, people will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors from Thursday, though they will still be obligatory on public transport, in sports stadiums and other crowded places. A nightly curfew will end as of Sunday.
The health secretary tells the House of Commons that the spread of the variant led the government to delay step four of its roadmap for easing restrictions in England. He said it spread more easily than the Alpha variant, and that there was some evidence that the risk of hospital admission was also higher
Portugal has said it would allow US visitors into the country, as it scrambles to shore up its tourism sector, but added Nepal to a list of “red” nations amid concerns over Covid variants.
Reuters reports that Portugal is now open to tourists from EU countries and Britain but they must show a negative Covid-19 test result on arrival. Since 15 June, rules applied to UK visitors also apply to those coming from the United States, the government said.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s removal of two Coca-Cola bottles during a press conference at coincided with a $4bn fall in drinks company’s share price. But with obesity being one of the main risk factors for the worst cases of Covid, what have governments done to ensure people have lived as healthily as possible during stringent lockdowns?
Covid cases in Blackburn with Darwen, the local authority with England’s highest infection rate, have peaked, Public Health England figures indicate.
PHE data shows a total of 897 cases in Blackburn with Darwen for the seven days to 10 July, giving the town a rolling rate of 599 cases per 100,000 people.
Health authorities say contact tracing under way after man in his 60s, who drives international flight crews, tests positive along with household contact
A man who lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and works as a driver for international flight crews has tested positive to Covid, as has a household contact, with the New South Wales health department listing a string of hotspot venues they visited while potnetially infectious.
NSW Health revealed on Wednesday afternoon the man in his 60 had tested positive before announcing later that night his household contact had also tested positive with “further venues of concern identified”.
British tourists face continued restrictions on travelling to the EU this summer even as the bloc opens up to others, including residents of the United States.
Eight countries are to be added to a list of countries from where the EU says non-essential travel is safe, but the UK has not been included.
Boris Johnson described Matt Hancock as “totally fucking hopeless” during the early stages of the pandemic, concerned by the health secretary’s promises on testing, text messages published by Dominic Cummings have revealed.
Writing on Substack, the prime minister’s former chief aide published a slew of texts and documents from emergency Cobra meetings that he said would combat what he called “lies” from Downing Street and the health secretary about the initial handling of the pandemic.
Covid-19 cases have fallen far below the winter peak, but the Delta variant has roughly doubled every two weeks in the US
Scientists in the United States are anxiously watching the Delta variant of Covid-19, as it spreads through an unevenly vaccinated American public and an economy that is rapidly reopening.
The Delta variant, first identified as B.1.617.2 in India, is believed to be more transmissible than both the original strain of Covid-19 and the Alpha strain, first identified in the United Kingdom.
Racegoers have returned to Royal Ascot for the first time since the pandemic began. Punters dressed in outlandish hats, summer dresses, smart suits and masks will cheer on the jockeys over the next four days at the Berkshire race course
A new drug has been found to cut Covid deaths by a fifth among the sickest patients in hospital and may change official practice so that every patient with coronavirus will have an antibody test before they are admitted.
The Recovery trial based at Oxford University has found a third drug that can help Covid patients recover in hospital – but this one is the first to tackle the virus itself, rather than the inflammation that develops in the later stages of the disease.
In India’s remote peaks, the pandemic’s toll is worsened by lack of medical facilities, roads and information
Phalguni Devi has spent a fortnight living in a cattle shed. Looking out on a rainy afternoon in early June, she worries that if the rain does not let up, her fever will worsen.
Devi, 51, shares the shed with a cow and two cats, and this has taken its toll. Herbal concoctions have not worked and the visit to a pharmacist in the nearest town, in the Nijmola valley in the Himalayas, which took an entire day, did not help.