Hospitals in southern England worst affected, with Devon recording highest ever numbers of Covid patients
Rising numbers of people entering hospital with Covid are leading to other patients becoming infected, staff absences, delayed operations and long waits in emergency departments, experts have said.
In recent weeks, Covid infection levels have been rising in the UK and hospitalisations are also increasing.
Continue reading...The well-known public health expert will be replacing Jeff Zients, who was appointed 14 months ago
Joe Biden has selected a new White House Covid-19 response coordinator to help lead the US’s fight against the virus, the US president announced on Thursday.
Dr Ashish Jha has been named as the new response coordinator. Jha, who is the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, is a well-known public health expert.
Continue reading...Epidemiologists say calls by business to relax mask rules as case numbers escalate is ‘down the rabbit hole thinking’
Victorian business leaders pushing to scrap mask mandates for hospitality and retail workers are “clearly not following the trend” in rising cases, according to epidemiologists who say now is not the time to relax rules.
The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, on Thursday rejected a push from the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian Retailers Association and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry who told the Herald Sun they wanted national consistency on mask mandates and warned workers could leave the sectors for other jobs.
Continue reading...Despite record infections and fatalities, public opinion appears to support plans to ease Covid curbs in the coming days
South Korea reported record daily Covid infections and record deaths caused by the virus, as the country which once took an aggressive anti-pandemic approach is set to end Covid restrictions.
On Thursday, authorities said 621,328 new daily cases of the virus were recorded, and 429 deaths.
Continue reading...AFLW final postponed after Covid outbreak; NSW Labor calls for inquiry into flood response; Ukraine embassy calls for Australian sanctions against two Russian oligarchs; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news live
From senior economics reporter Ben Butler and foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst:
Ukraine’s embassy in Canberra has joined calls for the Australian government to sanction two Russian oligarchs who have assets here, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg.
The government of Ukraine is grateful to the government of Australia for its proactive and extensive sanctions policy against Russia, which is the biggest among the Indo-Pacific countries ...
We hope that those Russian oligarchs will be included in the next round of sanctions.
Vekselberg has already been sanctioned by the British and US governments. It’s curious that the Australian government has not yet followed suit given its claims of being in lockstep with the US and UK.
Vekselberg’s interest in Falcon pre-dates Origin’s farm-in agreement agreed in 2015, so Origin was entered into the joint venture with eyes wide open.
We certainly have had very limited capability to conduct experimental fires under extreme conditions. Nobody in their right mind is going to give us the go ahead to light a fire on a Black Saturday-type day ...
This lab means we’ll be able to study particular aspects of fire behaviour under the extreme conditions that are more likely to occur under climate change.
By using the data collected by the pyrotron, our prediction tools become more accurate. And that means better decision making about where firefighters can safely go, what firefighting strategies to use, and also improved emergency warnings for communities.
Continue reading...The jobless rate for women fell to the lowest rate since May 1974 at 3.8%, as the economy added a net 77,400 jobs in February
Australia’s jobless rate sank to a new 13-year low last month with a big rise in full-time positions, as the economy shrugged off more of the Omicron Covid disruptions.
The country’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 4.0% in February, compared with 4.2% in January. That’s the lowest rate since August 2008, the ABS said.
Continue reading...The move would allow for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured and distributed among developing nations faster
Global powers have inched closer to an agreement to waive patents for Covid-19 vaccines, a move that would allow for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured and distributed among developing nations faster.
A leaked document, seen by the Guardian, reveals details of a compromise struck between the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa that would end a deadlock over an intellectual property waiver, 18 months after the proposal was first taken to the World Trade Organization.
Continue reading...PM highlights China’s ‘chilling silence’ on Russian invasion as Labor says China has ‘responsibility’ to call out Putin’s actions; NSW Health confirms seventh case of Japanese encephalitis; man in court over Sydney boarding house fire; Coalition to spend $243m on four mining projects; a man has died in Broken Hill after driving his ute into flood waters; nation records at least 17 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
NSW Health has added the results from 10,000 additional positive rapid antigen tests to its official numbers after a data error meant they were left out.
The results were registered between Sunday 13 March and Monday 14 March, with NSW Health warning the numbers will “inflate the cases being reported today for the 24 hours to 4pm yesterday (Tuesday)”.
Vice-President Kamala Harris has tested negative but is cutting back on her schedule; both were vaccinated and had booster shots
Doug Emhoff, the US second gentleman, has tested positive for Covid-19, the White House announced on Tuesday. The vice-president, Kamala Harris, tested negative, but is curtailing her schedule as a result of her husband’s positive test.
Harris’s spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Harris would not participate in a planned Equal Pay Day event on Tuesday evening at the White House with Joe Biden “out of an abundance of caution”.
Continue reading...Victoria also recorded its highest daily coronavirus case total in five weeks as the more-infectious Omicron subvariant spreads
Covid-19 cases have spiked dramatically in New South Wales, with 30,402 new infections recorded, but authorities say it’s at least partly due to a data glitch.
NSW Health says about 10,000 positive rapid antigen tests registered between Sunday and Monday are included in figures released on Wednesday due to a data processing problem.
Continue reading...After two years spent closed off by the pandemic, prime minister Jacinda Ardern says ‘we’re ready to welcome the world back’
New Zealand is re-opening its borders to the world, after two years spent closed off by the pandemic.
From 13 April, vaccinated tourists from Australia will be able to enter the country without isolating.
Continue reading...Temporary measures introduced during Covid crisis will be made made permanent from April
Outdoor weddings and civil partnerships are to be legalised permanently in England and Wales, ministers have announced.
Since last summer, couples have been able to hold their civil wedding or ceremony outside under temporary measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Nearly 90% of new infections in Jilin province, while tens of millions of people across the country remain confined to their homes
China has posted a steep jump in daily Covid-19 infections with new cases more than doubling from a day earlier to a two-year high as a virus outbreak expanded rapidly in the north-east.
A total of 3,507 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms were reported on Monday across more than a dozen provinces and municipalities, the National Health Commission said, up from 1,337 a day earlier.
Continue reading...Search for owner after bodies found in Newtown boarding house fire police believe was ‘maliciously lit’; cruise ship ban to end on April 17; Victorian health minister says Omicron subvariant ‘slowly asserting itself’; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths with 10 in Queensland. This blog is now closed
The government has decided to withdraw a women’s network logo that was widely mocked online for its phallic shape.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet issued a statement today saying the logo had been removed from its website “pending consultation with staff”:
The women’s network logo retained a ‘W’ icon which staff had been using for a number of years.
The rebrand was completed internally, using existing resources, and designs were consulted on widely. No external providers were engaged for this work.
Continue reading...Remaining rules including mandatory passenger locator forms and tests for unvaccinated arrivals will end on Friday
All remaining Covid travel restrictions are to be dropped across the UK from later this week, despite a concerning rise in cases and hospitalisations.
Ministers approved the scrapping of passenger locator forms and the requirement for all unvaccinated arrivals to get tested, with the changes to come into force from 4am on Friday.
Continue reading...Call comes as data shows 2- to 11-year-olds currently have the highest rate of infection
Scientists are calling for the immediate rollout of Covid vaccines to primary-aged children, as new data suggests that even a single dose of the Pfizer jab helps to prevent older children against infection, and shortens the duration and severity of symptoms if they do get infected.
According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, 2- to 11-year-olds have the highest rate of infections of any UK age group, with 4.2% testing positive during the week ending 5 March. Secondary-aged children (up to Year 11) have the lowest rate of infections, with 2.4% testing positive.
Continue reading...NRMA says any fuel excise cuts likely to be ‘eaten up’ by soaring prices; Victoria records 5,499 new Covid cases, one death; NSW 9,911 new cases, one death; ACT 599 cases; QLD 3,797 cases as health minister tests positive; NT 198 cases; cruise ship ban could lift soon; NSW health minister ‘not keen’ on reintroducing Covid restrictions. Follow all the day’s news
NSW emergency services minister Steph Cooke has said there will be an independent review of the response to the floods in northern NSW.
Cooke was speaking to 2GB earlier today, and lamented that the government “can always do better next time”.
I think we can always do better next time.
There’s no question of that. That’s why we’re looking to do an independent review of the immediate response and the immediate aftermath in terms of what was deployed and when and what discussions were had.
[Different agencies] worked together extremely well during this difficult environment and I think that trying to cast blame is not actually helpful.
I am sorry to say it but sometimes the media like to put the point of blame back on various people. There will be a review and no doubt there will be learnings again, as there is in every crisis but it is not helpful to have a blame game going on and all through the two-year pandemic, you wouldn’t have heard me say a word about any other state government’s views and not criticising the federal government was very much at the forefront as well.
Continue reading...Barack Obama has tested positive for Covid-19.
“I just tested positive for Covid,” the former president, 60, said in a tweet on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Continue reading...Authorities adopt a zero tolerance policy in Shenzhen, imposing a lockdown and testing every resident three times
China’s government has locked down Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, as it tries to contain its worst ever Covid-19 outbreak across multiple provinces, with case numbers tripling from Saturday to Sunday.
A government notice on Sunday said all residential communities were now under “closed management”, meaning they would be locked down. Every resident would undergo three rounds of testing, for which they were allowed to leave their homes, and all buses and subways were suspended.
Continue reading...Schemes coming to an end is ‘yet another example of short-term thinking’
Ministers have been accused of “turning off the headlights at the first sign of dawn” after scrapping nationwide Covid surveillance programmes, with scientists saying it will almost certainly end up costing more money in the long run.
Last week, scientists announced that the React study – which randomly tests about 150,000 people across England each month to see how many are infected with coronavirus – will be scrapped at the end of March, and no further data will be collected beyond that point.
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