Category Archives: Coronavirus

Military deployed at London hospitals due to Omicron staff shortages

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Support, which includes 40 army doctors, shows ministers can no longer ignore scale of understaffing, union leaders say

The armed forces are being deployed to help hospitals in London deal with a surge in Covid patients because the Omicron variant is leaving so many staff sick and unable to work.

Of the 200 military personnel involved, 40 are doctors who will help NHS staff look after patients. The other 160 personnel, who have no medical training, will check in patients, ensure stocks are maintained and would also be “conducting basic checks”, the Ministry of Defence said.

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We know the hell we’re in. It will get worse before it gets better | Melbourne ICU nurse

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I’ve seen people die without their family. It used to bring me to tears. Now I just feel weary

My therapist says it’s OK that sometimes I feel dead inside.

I’m a critical care nurse. I worked in intensive care for all of 2020 and 2021.

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In this strange summer it feels like the wheels are falling off faster in 2022 | Brigid Delaney

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Between Christmas and New Year’s, time seems to stretch and purposelessness pervades – and Omicron gives this baggy week a sinister edge

Arriving home to a heatwave, I open the front door to see the house has swollen in the heat. It’s an old miner’s cottage built on dirt, no proper foundations. It seems to breathe and change form depending on the weather. Remember that scene in Willy Wonka where Violet Beauregarde eats the forbidden gum and turns purple then expands like a blueberry? My house is Violet Beauregarde.

The skirting boards have popped off and detached from the wall, a deep crack has appeared in the ceiling, and the ceiling and the wall appears to have separated. Will the house cleave in two if the heatwave continues? And if so, what does that mean? What should I do?

Brigid Delaney is a columnist for Guardian Australia

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Tory peer Michelle Mone secretly involved in PPE firm she referred to government

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Exclusive: Leaked files suggest Mone and her husband were involved in business given £200m contracts

Leaked files appear to suggest the Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, were secretly involved in a PPE business that was awarded more than £200m in government contracts after she referred it to the Cabinet Office.

Barrowman, an Isle of Man-based financier, may have played a central role in the business deal that enabled PPE Medpro to sell millions of masks and surgical gowns to the government at the start of the pandemic, documents suggest.

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UK faces legal action for approving firm accused of using forced labour as PPE supplier

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High court to review government’s decision to include subsidiary of Malaysia’s Supermax in £6bn ‘framework’ deal for buying gloves

The UK government is facing legal action over its decision to keep using a Malaysian company accused of using forced labour as a supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS.

Lawyers at the London-based law firm Wilson Solicitors have filed for a judicial review of the government’s decision to name the UK subsidiary of the Malaysian company Supermax as one of the approved suppliers in a new £6bn contract for disposable gloves for NHS workers.

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Covid live news: French parliament approves ‘vaccine pass’ law; Italy to mandate vaccines for over 50s

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Law passes after controversy over Macron’s words on putting pressure on unvaccinated; Italy tightens vaccination rules as it reports record rise in cases

Novak Djokovic flew into Melbourne airport on Wednesday night planning to defend his Australian Open title. Instead, the World No 1 is being held in a quarantine hotel and is set to be deported tonight after a remarkable series of events led to his visa being cancelled.

So how on earth did it get to this point?

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French MPs pass controversial Covid vaccine bill with large majority

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Bill to restrict restaurant, theatre and other access to vaccinated follows Macron’s pledge to ‘piss off’ those without jabs

French MPs have passed the government’s controversial vaccine pass bill after three days of an angry stop-start debate.

The legislation, which requires people to be fully vaccinated to enjoy social, sporting and cultural activities, was approved by a large majority in the assemblée nationale in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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From corruption to the ‘mark of the beast’ – why countries like Malawi are struggling against Covid | Madalitso Wills Kateta

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With 80% of pandemic funds misused and widespread vaccine myths, citizens have had to step up where government has failed

In January 2021, the Malawian rights activist Paul Msoma wrote that he was in Kamuzu central hospital, struggling to breathe. The hospital had oxygen cylinders but no flowmeters – the necessary instrument to connect him to them. I was left wondering where the funds that had been released for the country’s Covid-19 response were going. “My situation is getting bad and l desperately need oxygen,” Msoma wrote on Facebook. “Anyone who can urgently help out there please help by donating this very gadget.”

Kamuzu central hospital is one of the biggest referral hospitals in Malawi and it did not seem right for such a big hospital not to have oxygen flowmeters, which are very basic medical equipment costing around £18 a piece. This was at a time when the government had released more than £5.6m for the Covid-19 response effort.

Madalitso Wills Kateta is a freelance journalist based in Lilongwe, Malawi

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Crisis, what crisis? Florida Republicans deny Omicron is straining hospitals

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State becomes focal point of politicized debate over whether Omicron is dangerous enough to overwhelm hospital systems

While Florida has experienced a record number of Covid-19 cases and sharp increase in hospitalizations in recent weeks, there is disagreement between Republicans and Democrats over whether the Omicron surge has actually overwhelmed the state’s healthcare system.

For example, Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio posted on Twitter that there “is no Omicron hospital ‘surge’ in Florida. People admitted for non-Covid reasons get tested. If they test positive they get counted as a ‘Covid patient.’”

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US troops in Okinawa ordered to wear masks as Covid cases rise

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Military personnel must wear face coverings off base after virus surges among civilians in Japan

US troops in Okinawa prefecture have been ordered to wear masks off base amid criticism that military authorities failed to tackle a fresh Covid-19 outbreak among service personnel that has taken hold among the local civilian population in Japan.

Okinawa is at the centre of the country’s latest outbreak, with cases surging in recent days from 51 on Saturday to at least 980 on Thursday – a record daily caseload for the southern island.

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Novak Djokovic wins interim injunction against deportation; more than 72,000 new cases nationwide – As it happened

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Karen Andrews, home affairs minister, did give a hint of how things might play out.

AAP reports that, before Novak Djokovic’s arrival, she said that while the Victorian government and Tennis Australia may allow a non-vaccinated player to compete in the Australian Open, it was the federal government that dealt with border entry requirements.

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China fires hospital officials after pregnant woman loses baby due to Covid lockdown rules

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The woman was allegedly denied entry to a hospital in the city of Xi’an because her negative Covid test was four hours too old

Chinese hospital officials have been fired after a pregnant woman lost her baby after she was denied entry at a Xi’an hospital due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

On the night of 1 January a woman in labour was denied entry to the Xi’an Gaoxin hospital because her negative test result was four hours too old. She began bleeding heavily while waiting outside, and was eventually admitted but the baby died.

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Brazil’s bars choose their customers for their politics as election nears

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Unjabbed supporters of President Bolsonaro are banned from some pubs – but elsewhere fans can buy pizza named after him

Jana Santos has an unambiguous message for Jair Bolsonaro-supporting anti-vaxxers who want to sup a Moscow Mule or Caipirinha at her bar in south Brazil.

“Don’t come. We don’t want you here,” said the mixologist and bar owner who recently placed a placard at its entrance instructing unvaccinated Bolsonaristas to steer clear.

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Victoria Covid update: state to mandate reporting of positive rapid test results – video

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It will now be mandatory to report positive rapid antigen test results to the health department by phone or using an online form. A positive home test will carry the same obligations as a positive PCR test. Acting chief health officer, Prof Benjamin Cowie, says with significant transmission of the Omicron variant, pressure on the PCR testing system, and millions of rapid tests being ordered by the Victorian government, the rapid antigen tests will now have the same 'authority' as a PCR test

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Italy makes Covid vaccinations compulsory for over-50s

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Workplace rules also tightened to require health passes for those 50 or over with minimum €600 fines for non-compliance

Italy has made it obligatory for people aged 50 or more to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as the country scrambles to ease pressure on hospitals and reduce deaths amid a dramatic surge in infections.

The measure is among the toughest vaccine mandates in Europe and takes effect immediately. The move was unanimously supported by ministers despite divisions between the parties that make up prime minister Mario Draghi’s broad coalition before the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

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‘Covid is affecting all of acute care – so the system sludges up’

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A hospital doctor in Yorkshire explains how Omicron is testing northern hospitals’ resources, with staff juggling beds to control infection and dealing with a huge influx of patients

“Hospitals in the north of England are incredibly busy now, in particular because of Omicron. At the hospital where I work we’ve gone from 26 Covid inpatients on Boxing Day to 104 now.

Unlike previous waves of Covid, only four people are being cared for in ICU, whereas in previous waves we were maxed out at 20 people in ICU. That’s good from the patients’ point of view. But it does stress the rest of the system, including the bit of the system I work in – acute medicine.

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Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open participation in doubt over visa row

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Novak Djokovic’s attempts to compete at the Australian Open this month were thrown into fresh doubt on Wednesday amid a spiralling outcry over his controversial “medical exemption” agreed by the tournament’s organisers.

The whereabouts of the world No 1 and reigning Australian champion were in doubt after he was held up at passport control at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne, the host city of the tournament, for several hours late at night.

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‘We’re struggling’: Covid surge spoils summer for Australia’s hospitality and tourism businesses

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Staff shortages and a drop in customers dampen peak season as Covid cases skyrocket and testing regimes struggle

For Phil Johnson, the licensee of Aireys Pub, keeping the hotel open seven days a week at what should be peak season has instead become a “day-by-day proposition”.

During summer the hotel’s lawn, which boasts spectacular views of the sea and sunset, is usually packed with holidaymakers who have flocked to the Victorian surf coast town of Aireys Inlet to escape Melbourne’s heat.

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Could microclots help explain the mystery of long Covid? | Resia Pretorius

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My lab has found significant microclot formation in long Covid patients. Unfortunately, these are missed in routine blood tests

One of the biggest failures during the Covid-19 pandemic is our slow response in diagnosing and treating long Covid. As many as 100 million people worldwide already suffer from long Covid. That staggering number will eventually be much higher, if we take into account that diagnoses are still inadequate, and that we still do not know what the impact of Omicron and future variants will be.

Patients with long Covid complain of numerous symptoms, the main ones being recurring fatigue and brain fog, muscle weakness, being out of breath and having low oxygen levels, sleep difficulties and anxiety or depression. Some patients are so sick that they cannot work or even walk a few steps. There is possibly also an elevated risk of stroke and heart attacks. One of the biggest sources of concern is that even mild and sometimes asymptomatic initial Covid-19 infection may lead to debilitating, long-term disability.

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Cuba’s vaccine success story sails past mark set by rich world’s Covid efforts

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The island nation struggles to keep the lights on but has inoculated 90% of population with home-developed vaccines

General Máximo Gómez, a key figure in Cuba’s 19th-century wars of independence against Spain once said: “Cubans either don’t meet the mark – or go way past it.”

A century and a half later, the aphorism rings true. This downtrodden island struggles to keep the lights on, but has now vaccinated more of its citizens against Covid-19 than any of the world’s major nations.

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