Category Archives: Coronavirus

Mixed messages? How end of Covid plan B could change behaviour in England

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Analysis: Experts say when the rules are relaxed there tends to be a gradual erosion of protective behaviours

All plan B measures in England will be lifted next week, meaning an end to compulsory mask-wearing in shops, vaccine certificates for entering venues, and guidance to work from home. But are the public ready to embrace these freedoms just weeks after Covid cases in the UK hit a record high and with daily deaths higher now than when the measures were introduced?

Some are likely to feel more than ready to cast aside restrictions that have been financially and personally cumbersome, while others may fear things are moving too quickly. Regardless of the range of attitudes, changing the rules will shift behaviour.

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Australia news live update: nation records at least 80 Covid deaths in deadliest day yet; WA delays border reopening

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Australia records its deadliest day of the pandemic with 80 deaths; AFP begins investigations into RAT price gouging; ‘If not now, when?’ asks Frydenberg on WA border. Follow all the day’s news

The West Australian paper certainly isn’t mincing words with their views on the indefinite border closure this morning.

The Australian federal police have launched an investigation into price gouging rapid antigen tests, warning people that re-selling them for “more than 20 per cent of the original retail purchase price” is a crime punishable with up to five years in prison.

Two investigations have begun in Queensland and NSW after referrals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

More referrals are expected and will be coordinated under the AFP’s Taskforce LOTUS, which was established in 2021 as a targeted and scalable response to potential criminal threats to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

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Covid live: Ireland to lift almost all curbs from 6am on Saturday; France reports 400,851 new cases

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Ireland’s premier Micheál Martin says ‘we have weathered the Omicron storm’; France reports 400,851 daily cases and 233 Covid-linked hospital deaths

China has reported its lowest daily tally of local confirmed Covid-19 cases in nearly two months, after a national strategy to stamp out flare-ups and lock down affected cities.

China reported 23 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Thursday, official data showed, down from 43 a day earlier.

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‘My show ain’t ready’: Adele postpones Las Vegas residency

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Singer announces she is rescheduling Weekends with Adele show as half her crew infected with Covid

Adele has been forced to delay her three-month Las Vegas residency after Covid hit the production.

“I’m so sorry, but my show ain’t ready,” the singer announced in an Instagram post. “We’ve been absolutely destroyed by delivery delays and Covid. Half my crew … are down with Covid – they still are – and it’s been impossible to finish the show.”

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Austria creates Covid lottery with €500 prizes to woo vaccine hesitant

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Carrot-and-stick approach includes vaccine mandate and lottery tickets for fully inoculated

Austria has announced plans to give Covid-19 vaccine recipients an almost one-in-three chance to win a €500 (£415) gift voucher while MPs voted to fine those who decline it, as the Alpine republic implements its “carrot and stick” strategy for overcoming reluctance to take the jab.

The conservative-green coalition government of chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday morning unveiled what it called its “vaccination lottery” programme, which will run from 15 March until the end of the year and cost the government approximately €1.4bn.

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Djokovic-backed ‘biotech’ firm’s approach likened to homeopathy

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Exclusive: QuantBioRes says it designs treatments for viral diseases based on electromagnetic frequency

A Danish “biotech” company in which Novak Djokovic holds a majority stake is working on a “frequency” treatment for Covid-19 that an expert says bears similarities to the principles of homeopathy.

The world No 1 men’s tennis player was forced to leave Australia on Sunday after the country’s immigration minister cancelled his visa on the basis that his presence in Australia might risk “civil unrest” as he is a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”.

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Western Australia suspends border reopening indefinitely amid Omicron spread

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State had been due to open up to double-jabbed international and interstate travellers on 5 February

The reopening of Australia’s most isolated state has been suspended indefinitely to allow West Australians to get booster shots, as the more transmissible Omicron variant rips through the nation.

Just one month after promising that from 5 February double-vaccinated interstate and international travellers would be allowed to enter Western Australia without quarantine, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, has said that all entrants will need to self-isolate for 14 days, be triple-dose vaccinated and take tests.

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Covid news live: WHO recommends lifting international travel bans, says proof of vaccination not necessarily needed

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Blanket travel bans ineffective against Omicron spread, WHO says; Austria to introduce national vaccine lottery to encourage people to get jabs

Hong Kong will likely suspend face-to-face teaching in secondary schools from 24 January, local media reports.

The city’s Education Bureau made the announcement on Thursday, because of a rising number of coronavirus infections in several schools.

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Increased Covid risk a ‘trade-off’ in reopening schools, Australian chief medical officer says

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PM also announces commonwealth to split school Covid surveillance testing costs with states 50-50 following national cabinet meeting

Australia’s chief medical officer has conceded that children returning to school could create an increased risk of Covid transmission to their families, saying there would be “trade-offs” to getting students back in classrooms.

It comes as the commonwealth agreed to split costs for surveillance testing in schools 50-50 with state governments, despite the prime minister, Scott Morrison, saying there was no medical advice recommending such testing was necessary.

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US children’s Covid vaccinations lag despite record infections

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Nearly a million new Covid cases were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week before

As the Omicron variant rips through the US, children are being infected with Covid-19 in record numbers – yet their rate of vaccination has lagged, creating a surge in hospitalizations and undermining in-person schooling.

Nearly a million new Covid cases – more than 981,000 – were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week before and four times higher than last winter’s peak, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That means one in 10 Covid cases among children in the entire pandemic have happened in the past week, the organization said.

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‘No vax, no play’: surfer Kelly Slater won’t be let into Australia if he’s not vaccinated against Covid

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World Surf League events are due in Victoria and WA but federal health minister says position on coronavirus vaccine is ‘pretty clear’ following Novak Djokovic visa saga

Surfing great Kelly Slater could be the next big name in sport to be refused the right to compete in Australia, with the federal health minister saying the 11-time champion will not be allowed into the country if he is not vaccinated against Covid.

Slater, who has not publicly disclosed his Covid vaccination status, has aired some controversial views on the Covid vaccine, including an Instagram comment in October that claimed he knew “more about being healthy than 99% of doctors”.

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As Omicron rages around the world, Ardern deploys an old tactic – delay

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Jacinda Ardern says Omicron is ‘knocking at our door’ as the prime minister faces criticism over gaps in preparations for a Covid wave

In her first press conference of the year, held outside in the central North Island sun, prime minister Jacinda Ardern was almost drowned out by a wave of cicada calls.

The clamour is synonymous with New Zealand summertime, a reminder that the country had managed to snatch a long, hot, largely unrestricted holiday season from the mouth of a late-2021 Delta outbreak.

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Joe Biden says his administration has ‘outperformed’ in bruising first year

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President touts coronavirus relief aid and infrastructure law but acknowledges pandemic is unfinished job

• ‘I don’t believe the polls’: Biden gives testy press conference

Joe Biden on Wednesday conceded that the unshakable threat of the Covid-19 pandemic had left many Americans demoralized, but insisted that his administration had “outperformed” expectations despite the myriad crises facing the nation during his first year in office.

Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House for his first news conference in months, the US president said he was confident Democrats could pass “big chunks” of his sprawling domestic policy bill currently stalled in the Senate before the 2022 midterm elections.

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UK Covid live: end to England’s plan B measures next week ‘a milestone, not a finish line’, says Sajid Javid

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Latest updates: health secretary leads coronavirus update after Boris Johnson says England’s Omicron measures to end next week

Boris Johnson is expected to instruct millions to return to workplaces across England as he tries to placate furious MPs with a review of Covid restrictions that could end all rules introduced to combat Omicron.

The cabinet will meet on this morning to examine Covid data and review plan B restrictions imposed in December amid the rapid spread of the variant, with Johnson set to update the Commons later in the day.

I think they are a crucial building block of our baseline, a bit like Test and Trace, Test and Protect for us in Scotland, the alcohol gels, the vaccinations, I think these are what we’re going to be left with post-Omicron.

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Florida health official put on leave after encouraging staff to get Covid vaccine

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State health agency conducting inquiry into Raul Pino to ‘determine if any laws were broken’

A health official who helped lead Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been put on administrative leave as state officials investigate whether he tried to compel employees to get vaccinated.

The state health agency is conducting an inquiry into Raul Pino, director of the Florida department of health in Orange county, to “determine if any laws were broken in this case”, the state department of health press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said in an email.

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Ireland announces annual bank holiday to honour Covid victims and workers

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Government will also give tax-free bonus of €1,000 to frontline staff in hospitals and nursing homes

Ireland is to get a bank holiday as a national commemoration of those who have lost their lives to Covid and to recognise those who worked on the frontline of the pandemic, the government has announced.

Frontline healthcare workers in hospitals and nursing homes are also to receive a €1,000 (£830) tax-free bonus for their contribution to the national pandemic effort as part of a package of measures agreed by the cabinet on Wednesday.

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Work from home and and mandatory mask rules to be dropped as England moves back to plan A – video

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Boris Johnson has announced updates to Covid regulations as plan B measures are due to expire. The work-from-home mandate will be dropped, as will mandatory face mask-wearing, including in classrooms. Rules over self-isolation after a positive Covid test remain in place 

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Covid denier fined for filming in Gloucester hospital

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Debbie Hicks said she was acting as ‘guerrilla journalist’ to prove lockdown measures disproportionate

A woman acting as a “guerrilla journalist” when she filmed inside a hospital in an attempt to prove her belief that lockdown measures were disproportionate has been convicted of a public order offence.

Debbie Hicks, 47, a former teacher and psychologist, filmed twice at the Gloucestershire Royal hospital in Gloucester in December 2020 and told staff who challenged her she could do what she wanted as she paid her taxes.

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Covid live: Czech Republic scraps mandatory jabs as daily cases hit record; UK reports 108,069 cases

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Czech government scraps decree to avoid ‘deepening fissures’ in country; UK records a further 359 deaths

China has reported its lowest daily count of local Covid infections in two weeks after cities clamped down on high-risk areas, quarantined infections and conducted mass testing on residents.

Mainland China reported a total of 55 domestically transmitted infections for Tuesday, according to data from the national health commission, lower than the 127 recorded a day earlier and marking the fewest since 1 January.

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New Zealand closes borders to new arrivals over ‘unprecedented’ Omicron risk

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Citizens blocked from returning home after minister Chris Hipkins halts release of space in quarantine rooms, saying facilities are under ‘extreme pressure’

New Zealand has temporarily cut off the only pathway home for overseas citizens and visa holders, citing the risk of the Omicron variant.

Officials announced on Tuesday evening that new spaces in the country’s managed isolation and quarantine system (MIQ) would not be released.

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