Category Archives: Coronavirus

Queensland Covid hotspots: list of Brisbane and regional Qld coronavirus case locations

Posted on by

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and case locations in Queensland and what to do if you’ve visited them

Queensland authorities have released a list of hotspots where Covid-positive people have visited while infectious.

Any individuals who have been in the below locations during the relevant times are considered close contacts and asked to immediately home quarantine (for 14 days), even if you receive a negative result, and complete the contact-tracing self-assessment or call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84):

Continue reading...

Joe Biden condemns Georgia voting law: ‘This is Jim Crow in the 21st century’ – live

Posted on by

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Activists in Georgia vowed on Friday to keep up an aggressive campaign to pressure Republicans over their support for the law restricting voting access, saying they were undeterred by its final passage through the legislature.

Related: 'Jim Crow in the 21st century': Biden denounces Georgia Republicans over new voting law

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, argued the Georgia law restricting voter access underscored the need to pass the For the People Act.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the election reform legislation earlier this month.

We saw it in Georgia last night. We see it across the country.

A concerted, nationwide, and racist effort by Republican state legislatures to limit the right of American citizens to vote.

The #ForThePeople Act is a priority of this Congress to fight this and renew Democracy. pic.twitter.com/E0TFJ68dqv

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on China, Xinjiang and sanctions: the gloves are off | Editorial

Posted on by

Beijing wants to silence critics of its treatment of Uighurs. But the impact will be broader

China’s response to criticisms of horrifying human rights violations in Xinjiang is clear and calculated. Its aims are threefold. First, the sanctions imposed upon individuals and institutions in the EU and UK are direct retaliation for those imposed upon China over its treatment of Uighurs. That does not mean they are like-for-like: the EU and UK measures targeted officials responsible for human rights abuses, while these target non-state actors – elected politicians, thinktanks, lawyers and academics – simply for criticising those abuses.

Second, they seek more broadly to deter any criticism over Xinjiang, where Beijing denies any rights violations. Third, they appear to be intended to send a message to the EU, UK and others not to fall in line with the harsher US approach towards China generally. Beijing sees human rights concerns as a pretext for defending western hegemony, pointing to historic and current abuses committed by its critics. But mostly it believes it no longer needs to tolerate challenges.

Continue reading...

UK government in talks over expanding Covid travel ‘red list’

Posted on by

Ministers under growing pressure to prevent variants undermining vaccine programme

Discussions are under way in Whitehall about expanding the travel “red list” of countries as ministers face mounting pressure to prevent coronavirus variants undermining the vaccine programme.

The Guardian understands that officials met on Friday to consider the case for taking a tougher approach. British residents and nationals returning from countries on the red list must quarantine in an airport hotel for 10 days at a cost of £1,750, while other arrivals are banned. It remains illegal to go on holiday.

Continue reading...

France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs

Posted on by

EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.

Continue reading...

How the AstraZeneca vaccine became a political football – and a PR disaster

Posted on by

Newly accused of data manipulation by the US, AstraZeneca has faced unprecedented scrutiny over the past six months

It was billed as the vaccine to deliver the world from Covid. But over the last six months, AstraZeneca – whose jab was designed to save thousands of lives for no profit – has found itself stumbling along an extraordinarily rocky road, facing accusations over the efficacy, supply and side-effects of its vaccine from all quarters, and being kicked about like a political football.

This week, AstraZeneca faced unprecedented public criticism in the US from a high-level scientific body claiming the British-Swedish company massaged the data from its long-awaited trial there. And in Italy, military police entered a factory on behalf of the European commission investigating allegations of 29m hidden doses, said to be intended for shipment to the UK. The commission, which is demanding AstraZeneca supplies more jabs to Europe, meanwhile drew up regulations which could block vaccine exports to the UK.

Continue reading...

French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

Posted on by

Raw-milk product normally sold only to restaurants or visitors to Cîteaux Abbey is marketed online

A French monastery in the heart of Burgundy has launched an emergency online sale to get rid of thousands of its artisanal cheeses, which are languishing in its cellars as Covid-19 keeps buyers away.

The Cîteaux Abbey, just south of Dijon, birthplace of the Cistercian Catholic order, usually sells its raw-milk, semi-soft discs only to restaurants or visitors to its on-site shop. But a drop in demand since the coronavirus crisis erupted last year has left the abbey’s 19 Trappist monks with 4,000 cheeses too many, a 2.8-tonne problem.

Continue reading...

Covid third wave may overrun Africa’s healthcare, warns WHO

Posted on by

Leap of 50% in cases in three months and just 7m jabs across continent ‘infecting 11 health workers an hour’

Rising cases of coronavirus in Africa threaten to overrun fragile healthcare systems and test the continent’s much-touted resilience to the disease, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent.

The global health body stated that infections were on the rise in at least 12 countries in Africa including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Guinea.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Germany adds France, Austria, Denmark and Czech Republic to high-risk travel list

Posted on by

People arriving in Germany from countries on the list must provide a negative test no more than 48 hours old and quarantine for 10 days

UK prime minister Boris Johnson and US president Joe Biden have discussed the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in a call on Friday, PA reports.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The leaders discussed the fight against coronavirus and updated each other on their countries’ vaccine rollouts. The Prime Minister stressed that global access to vaccines will be key to defeating the pandemic.

“The Prime Minister and president agreed that combatting climate change will be a crucial component of building back better from the pandemic.”

Lebanon’s private sector helps speed up the country’s vaccination program by importing at least 1m doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines to aid the reopening of businesses.

The first shipment of 50,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived on Friday, making the country one of the few nations whose private sector is boosting its Covid-19 rollout.

Jacques Sarraf, a Lebanese businessman and head of the Lebanese Russian Business Council, said he hopes the Russian vaccines help safely reopen businesses around the country.

“Our first target will be private companies, factories, banks, and this is important to reactivate institutions,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Continue reading...

Tasmania election 2021: Peter Gutwein sends state to early poll

Posted on by

Premier Peter Gutwein announces election will be held a year early, a month before opposition leader is due to give birth

Tasmania will head to the polls for an early election after its Liberal government was plunged into minority.

Premier Peter Gutwein has announced the election, which was not due until May 2022, will be held on 1 May.

Continue reading...

Gibraltar looks to post-Covid era as vaccine drive nears completion

Posted on by

British overseas territory is positioning itself as real-time case study in relaxing restrictions

This month Gibraltar’s health minister snapped a photo from her first dinner out in months, showing two glasses of red wine sitting prominently on the table and a face mask cast off in the background. “Operation freedom begins,” tweeted Samantha Sacramento alongside the photo.

Operation Freedom, the name given to Gibraltar’s vaccination programme, is now closing in on its target: in the coming days the British overseas territory will become one of the first places in the world where every willing resident over the age of 16 has been fully vaccinated.

Continue reading...

Welsh tourism sector can start to reopen from this weekend

Posted on by

Lifting of stay-local rule is for Welsh residents only as country stays shut to visitors from other parts of the UK

The tourism sector in Wales can begin to reopen from Saturday as the country’s stay-local rule is lifted, but only for Welsh residents.

Organised outdoor activities and sports for children and under-18s will also be able to take place and up to six people from two different households can meet and exercise outdoors and in private gardens.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen backs authorisation mechanism for Covid vaccine exports – video

Posted on by

Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU is transparent and open, and welcomes other countries to be transparent with their exports.

Speaking at a virtual summit, she said contracts should be fulfilled before exporting vaccines and should keep reciprocity, which needs to be transparent so supply chains stay intact.

The president of the European commission said companies that honour their contracts are important to the vaccine programme, both in Europe and worldwide.

Continue reading...

EU leaders back ‘global value chains’ instead of vaccine export bans

Posted on by

Refusal to support measure despite Ursula von der Leyen highlighting 21m doses sent to UK

EU leaders backed “global value chains” rather than support Brussels in using new powers to block Covid jab exports to highly vaccinated countries, despite being told that 21m doses had been sent to the UK.

At a virtual summit, attended briefly by Joe Biden, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, highlighted the large shipments sent over the Channel, amounting to two-thirds of the jabs given in the UK.

Continue reading...

Pint of milk protest: Charles Walker’s surreal Commons speech – video

Posted on by

‘I want to talk about milk,’ begins Charles Walker. ‘I am going to walk around London with a pint of milk on my person, because that pint will represent my protest.’ In a convoluted speech, he concludes that unless you cherish freedoms, you will lose them. ‘Unless you fight for freedoms, every day they end up being taken away from you’

Continue reading...

France limits outdoor gatherings to six as Covid infections rise

Posted on by

More areas of the country get mobility restrictions while Hungary and Poland face crises

Concern is mounting among health experts that France is not doing enough to curb a rise in coronavirus infections, particularly among younger people, as a third wave fuelled by the B117 variant first detected in the UK accelerates across Europe.

Announcing 45,000 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the French health minister, Olivier Véran, on Thursday banned outdoor gatherings of more than six people and added three more départements, including the area around Lyon, to 16 already placed under tougher mobility restrictions.

Continue reading...

Inside the Covid unit: crisis threatens to overwhelm PNG’s biggest hospital

Posted on by

Exhausted doctors warn sceptical patients that Covid is real as Port Moresby general reaches capacity

The emergency department of the largest hospital in the capital of Papua New Guinea is hot, stuffy and full. People sit lined up outside the front counter, waiting to be seen.

It has been divided into two sections: the front continues to operate as a traditional emergency room, while the back is now a Covid-19 isolation ward, treating the most serious cases of the virus.

Continue reading...

UK diplomacy masks private fury in Covid vaccine row with EU

Posted on by

Tussles over supplies could last months despite commitment in public to work together

Tussles with the EU over vaccine supplies could continue for months, UK government insiders fear, despite a joint statement in which both sides committed to working together.

From Boris Johnson’s phone calls to EU leaders to the foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s discreet lobbying on the fringes of this week’s Nato meeting, a significant amount of senior government time and energy is being invested in trying to resolve the issue.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson says ‘freedom loving’ MPs should support cautious lockdown easing – video

Posted on by

The prime minister says the only way to restore a normal way of life is to beat Covid-19 and that 'the best path to freedom is down the cautious but irreversible roadmap that we've set out'. He also denies telling Tory MPs this week that the success of the vaccine programme was down to 'greed'

Continue reading...

If you’re ecstatic after a trip to the shops, it’s your brain thanking you for the novelty | Richard A Friedman

Posted on by

The monotony of lockdown life has starved us of spontaneity and serendipity, which enhance learning and memory

  • Richard A Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College

I hit a wall in late February and felt that life had taken on a quality of stultifying sameness. Was it Wednesday or Sunday? I couldn’t really tell: every day of the week felt identical because there was nothing to distinguish them. Work, read, exercise, eat, repeat. Like nearly everyone I know, I have settled into a state of dreary uniformity.

The pandemic has been a vast uncontrolled experiment – not just in social isolation, which is bad enough, but in the deprivation of novelty. Overnight we were stripped of our ability to roam around our world the way we usually do. Gone were the chance encounters with other people and the experience of new things and places: no travel, no adventures, no restaurants, no theatres, no crowds. We weren’t just quarantined from Covid: we were cut off from the ubiquitous stimulation of the unfamiliar and new.

Continue reading...