Category Archives: Coronavirus

Australia news live update: NSW government seeks to suspend MP facing charges; nation records 26 Covid deaths

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NSW government seeks to suspend Gareth Ward; Craig Foster lashes treatment of asylum seekers in National Press Club address; new research suggests long-lasting Covid immune response from vaccine-induced T-cells; at least 26 Covid deaths recorded; Atagi expected to green light fourth booster shots for some Australians. Follow all the day’s news live

David Koch:

Have you spoken to the “mean girls” – Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong – in the last week or so since Kimberly Kitching’s death about the allegations of bullying?

I think that term is really unfortunate.

She used it, it is not just us.

There is a lot of people speaking on other people’s behalf at the moment. I think that in politics, there are a range of people who are involved in party politics who play it pretty hard. One of those was Kimberly Kitching. She was somebody who engaged in politics and was passionate about her belief and from time to time that could produce some conflict. But it needs to be done in a way that is respectful, in a way that is understanding, and attempts to reach consensus.

It is rather bizarre ... I am always available and indeed I lobby regularly to be on the Sunrise program. I am always happy to discuss things with the media, but I won’t be taking lectures from a prime minister who visited Lismore and had strict streets shut off so victims of floods could not get near him.

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‘A new beginning’: New Zealand to drop Covid vaccine passes and mandates

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PM Jacinda Ardern, who oversaw some of the toughest restrictions in the world, says rules will relax after Omicron peak in early April

New Zealand will do away with vaccine passes and vaccine mandates for some of the workforce in early April, in a major loosening of the country’s tough Covid-19 restrictions.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced the changes on Wednesday morning, citing high vaccination rates, better data to identify which environments are high risk, and modelling that suggests the country’s Omicron outbreak would peak in early April.

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NSW Liberal MP criticised after speaking at anti-vaccination rally

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Tanya Davies says her government needs to end vaccine mandates, sparking criticism from Labor

The New South Wales Liberal MP Tanya Davies has hit out at her government over its Covid vaccination mandates for the public sector, claiming she has been working with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, to end them and get people back into jobs.

Speaking at an anti-vaccination rally outside parliament on Tuesday, the former minister said she was “dismayed” when her government introduced the measure and called for a return to “freedom”.

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China locks down city of 9 million and reports 4,000 cases as Omicron tests zero-Covid strategy

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City of Shenyang has barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result and put all housing compounds under ‘closed management’

China has locked down an industrial city of 9 million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases, as the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.

Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country on Tuesday, the bulk in the north-eastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighbouring Liaoning province was ordered to lock down late Monday.

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Covid wiped slate clean of ‘crap restaurants’, says Gordon Ramsay

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Celebrity chef says lockdowns have been ‘devastating’ for industry but upside is ‘crap is gone’

The celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has said it is good that the Covid-19 pandemic wiped the slate clean of “crap” restaurants.

In an interview with the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls in Radio Times, Ramsay argues that while the past two years have been “devastating” for the restaurant industry, the upside is “the crap’s gone”.

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SA hospitals under ‘extraordinary strain’; Perrottet asks MP to resign after charges – as it happened

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NSW MP Gareth Ward denies historic sexual abuse allegations; South Australian hospital system ‘under extraordinary strain’ new premier says, as at least 23 Covid deaths recorded nationally; Anthony Albanese proposes award in late Victorian senator Kimberley Kitching’s honour. This blog is now closed

Peter Malinauskas has promised to keep his shirt on from now on, after a photo of his muscled torso made quite a stir in the world of Australian politics.

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas:

During the campaign, you were photographed shirtless in swimming shorts, and it caused a bit of a stir. I have to ask you ... the Australian’s Greg Sheridan said jokingly on [ABC] Insiders that you’re “far too good looking”. Which I thought was quite a statement. What have you made of the reaction to that picture?

Do you have any idea how much grief I’ve copped around the place as a result of that?

Have they told you just to buff to be premier?

They’ve piled it on, let me tell you. I haven’t stopped copping it, and I deserve every bit of it.

We were announcing a big investment at our major aquatics centre here in South Australia and a whole bunch of us jumped in for a swim in our boardies with our kids there. And, yeah, it got a bit more attention than I anticipated, fair to say.

So you’re going to keep your shirt on from now on?

Damn straight!

I think we’re about to see a federal election where a cost of living is a front and centre issue. And I think Australians get the price of petrol, but they can’t control the price of groceries.

The way we address cost of living as a nation is to start having an incomes policy focus on how we improve working in small businesses to improve the productivity of their labour, so they can earn a higher income. And that’s why education, training and skills is so important.

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Downing Street parties: Met police begin interviewing witnesses

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News comes after questionnaires were sent to more than 100 people thought to be involved in lockdown gatherings

Boris Johnson is facing a possible police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Street as the Metropolitan police said they intended to start questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to more than 100 people.

But the police statement – issued two months since inquiries began – suggests officers have not yet found breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued without further interviews. No FPNs have been issued so far, the force said.

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Hong Kong eases travel rules in apparent shift from zero-Covid policy

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Ban on flights from nine countries lifted for fully vaccinated residents and quarantine reduced to seven days

Hong Kong will lift a ban on flights from nine countries and reduce hotel quarantine alongside a “roadmap” towards eased restrictions that suggest a departure from the territory’s zero-Covid policy, its leader has announced.

From 1 April, fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents who have received a negative PCR test will be allowed to enter on flights from the UK, Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and the US. Arrivals have to undergo seven days’ hotel quarantine, down from 14 previously.

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Australia news live update: mourners farewell Kimberley Kitching; Peter Malinauskas sworn in as SA premier; six Covid deaths recorded

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Labor senator Kimberley Kitching’s funeral held in Melbourne; Peter Malinauskas sworn in as new SA premier; Morrison and Palaszczuk announce infrastructure funding package; Lismore flood victims to dump debris at protest; at least six Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news

For almost four years Suzanna Sheed has started each parliamentary sitting week by moving the same motion.

The independent MP for Shepparton, a rural electorate of almost 50,000 people in northern Victoria, asks for a non-government business program to be reinstated in the state’s lower house.

They’re having a real impact on people right now, so we’ve been conscious of that. But what we do as a government is we don’t have knee-jerk reactions, we think through carefully how we can best provide the sort of support that we believe the federal government can deliver.

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Digital code of conduct fails to stop all harms of misinformation, Acma warns

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Need for damage to be serious and imminent before Facebook and Google take action means ‘chronic’ problems build, watchdog says – citing mistrust of vaccines

The code of conduct adopted by digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, is “too narrow” to prevent all the harms of misinformation and disinformation, Australia’s media regulator has warned.

The requirement that harm from social media posts must be both “serious” and “imminent” before tech companies take action has allowed longer term “chronic harms” including vaccine misinformation and the erosion of democracy, according to the Australian Communication and Media Authority.

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NHS rollout of second Covid booster jabs begins in England

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Offer of top-up dose to over-75s, care home residents and those who are immunocompromised follows JCVI advice last month

The NHS in England will on Monday start giving a second booster vaccine to millions of people who are at higher risk from Covid-19 to help combat the latest resurgence in infections.

Over-75s, care home residents and those who are immunocompromised – 5 million in all – will be contacted by the NHS and then be able to book an appointment online or by calling 119.

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US likely to see Covid cases rise from Omicron subvariant, Fauci says

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Biden’s chief medical adviser also says the US is ‘clearly going in the right direction’ on the pandemic

The US is likely to see an increase in Covid cases like that in Europe and the UK thanks to the BA.2 virus subvariant but not a dangerous surge, Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.

Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser also said the US was “clearly going in the right direction” on the coronavirus pandemic.

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5m people in England to be offered Covid booster jabs

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Vaccine available to care home residents, people aged 75 and over, and immunosuppressed aged 12 and over

Coronavirus booster vaccine jabs for millions of people in England will begin to be offered this week, the NHS announced.

The vaccine will be available to care home residents, people who are 75 and over, and the immunosuppressed aged 12 and over.

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With 37 million in lockdown and Covid plans under fire, Chinese ask: what comes next?

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Elderly residents are wary of the jab even as Omicron spreads, and critics say zero-Covid policy is not sustainable

When nearby neighbourhoods went into lockdown, Liu Li started stocking up. The 42-year-old Chinese magazine worker bought vegetables, fruit, medicine and other supplies, adding to stores of basics she had maintained since the pandemic began. Last Sunday a resident in the community where Liu lives with her mother, in Changchun city, Jilin, tested positive. Everyone was ordered inside.

The fresh lockdown has, so far, been OK. “I live a normal life,” she says. “I work when there are tasks for me. If there aren’t any, I talk to my mother, watch TV, or play with my cat.”

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New Covid case numbers across Australia rise by 37% in a week as Omicron subvariant takes hold

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Australia records 28 Covid-related deaths, with 12 in NSW, 10 in Queensland, four in Western Australia and two in Victoria

The number of new Covid infections across Australia has risen by 37% in a week, linked to the more transmissible BA.2 subvariant of Omicron.

Australia has recorded 295,146 new Covid-19 cases in the past week, surging by more than a third compared with 215,701 cases the previous week, according to data from the tracking site Covid Live.

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China reports first coronavirus deaths in over a year amid omicron surge

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Two deaths reported on Saturday, the first since January 2021, as China continues to pursue ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

China’s national health authorities reported two Coronavirus deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, as the country battles an omicron-driven surge.

The deaths, both in north-eastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.

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Ottawa truck convoy cost the city more than C$36m – mainly in police expenses

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The costs were more than twice the amount the city budgeted for affordable and supportive housing

The truck convoy that paralyzed much of downtown Ottawa for nearly a month cost the city more than C$36m, officials have said, and the figure is expected to rise in the coming weeks.

A memo released by the city on Friday said policing costs accounted for the vast majority of the $36.3m bill.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg says Ukraine war shows Partygate scandal was just ‘fluff’ – as it happened

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Brexit opportunities minister says people will find Partygate scandal ‘fundamentally trivial’ in the context of war in Ukraine. This live blog has now closed.

“I think people respect honesty,” says Rishi Sunak. A few weeks ago this would have been seen as an obvious dig at Sunak’s boss, but it did not sound like that today. He was talking about Treasury policy in the early days of the Covid pandemic, and how he felt it was important to admit that government policy would not be able to save all jobs.

Now he’s talking about the family dog. He was oppoosed to getting a puppy for a long time, he says, but when he became chancellor, he was spending so much time at work that he lost the moral authority to say no.

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Warning signs for US as Covid cases rise in Europe

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The US must prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether it’s BA.2 or a different one, experts say

Cases and deaths from Covid-19 have fallen in the US, but warning signs and rises in other countries are prompting experts to take future and existing variants of the virus seriously – and they are warning that America has not yet reached the endemic phase.

It’s important to prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether that’s BA.2 or a different one, experts say.

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Farmers welcome provision of extra flood relief funding in NSW – as it happened

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Inquest into death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker to start in September; call for inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women; advice for asthma sufferers during flood clean-up; at least 26 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on the telly now (hope he’s saving some juicy bits for his speech later). He’s talking about this idea of returning to some sort of pre-Covid fiscal world. He says:

As you know, we recalibrated our budget strategy when the pandemic first hit and we needed to do that to ensure there was sufficient economic support with programs like jobkeeper, the cash flow boosts, the $750 payments to pensioners, carer, and those on income support. That helped stabilise the economy by opening up the purse strings. Now that the recovery is well underway and the unemployment rate is down to a 14-year low of 4%, it is time to move to the next phase of the budget strategy and that means stabilising debt and then reducing debt as a proportion of the overall economy, and ending those crisis-level, emergency economic support programs.

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