Category Archives: Coronavirus

Can you trust a negative lateral flow Covid test?

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Analysis: with cold symptoms, it is better to wait for a PCR result rather than risk spreading the virus

You wake up with a pounding head, sore throat and runny nose: you reach for one of those lateral flow tests (LFT) you’ve got stashed away, just to check it is not Covid. If it returns a single red line (negative), then most people will pop a couple of paracetamol and go about business as normal – particularly if you’ve been double-jabbed. It probably is just a cold, after all.

Yet, the emergence of Omicron has thrown a spanner in the works. According to the latest data, just one month after your second Pfizer or AstraZeneca jab, the ability of antibodies to neutralise Omicron is 30 times lower than if you were infected with the Delta variant – reinforcing the message that double-vaccination is no guarantee against infection.

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Covid live: Mainland China reports first Omicron cases; Norway to tighten restrictions

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First confirmed Omicron case in mainland China is detected in Tianjin; Norway to act amid record high infections and hospitalisations

South Africa has reported an additional 37,875 new coronavirus cases, which includes 19,840 retrospective cases and 18,035 new cases, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

In the past 24 hours a total of 18,035 positive Covid-19 cases and 21 Covid-related deaths were reported.

I’m worried that PNG is the next place where a new variant emerges.”

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Australia live news update: WA to ease hard border from 5 February; $1bn defence deal signed with South Korea

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Mark McGowan announces reopening plan after WA hits 80% fully vaccinated; PM confirms international borders to reopen Wednesday for some visa holders; defence deal inked as Korean leader visits; Greg Hunt says telehealth to be made permanent; Victoria records 1,290 new Covid cases and two deaths; NSW records 536 new cases and no deaths; NT to ramp up Covid rules for some communities after 17 new cases; Queensland records one new local case, with 13 reported in SA. Follow all the day’s developments

Time to chat about next year’s election, and the battle the treasurer is facing from an independent in his home seat.

Michael Rowland:

You are now facing, as we know, Monique Ryan in the seat of Kooyong. She’s a Royal Children’s hospital doctor. You’ve labelled people like she, an independent, as a front for Labor and the Greens. What evidence do you have for that?

Well, at the last election, I had an independent who said they were gonna vote for Labor. That’s a pretty clear indication. We’ve also seen plenty of cases where they’ve just mirrored the policies of our political opponents.

But what evidence do we have at this time?

This is a rinse-and-repeat, Michael. What we’ve seen, we’ve seen obviously a lot of funding going into these independents around the rest of the country, and it’s a democracy, so people can put their hand up.

Just on Omicron, you might have caught up with the news just in the last hour or so, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, made an address to the nation there. He’s declared a tidal wave of Omicron case is about to hit the UK.

He’s declared it a public health emergency, and has declared that all British adults over the age of 16 can get a booster shot by the end of the year. Taking that into account, are we being a bit too sanguine about Omicron here in Australia?

We saw the medical advice, and that saw a pause for two weeks of the reopening of the border to international students and to skilled workers.

That was a precautionary measure. But we will continue to listen and follow the health advice, and it has served us well to date.

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Australia welcomes South Korean president with confirmation of border reopening

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Scott Morrison is opening the door to South Korean and Japanese travellers from Wednesday and has spoken of closer defence ties with the signing of a $1bn defence contract

Australia’s international border will open to more travellers on Wednesday, as the prime minister confirmed that his government would end the “pause” triggered by the emergence of the Omicron Covid variant.

Scott Morrison, welcoming the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, to Canberra on Monday, said Australia would open to travellers from South Korea and Japan and also international students and skilled workers more broadly.

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Experts warn Papua New Guinea is potential breeding ground for new Covid variants

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PNG, where less than 5% of the adult population is vaccinated, is creating opportunities for the virus to spread and mutate, epidemiologists say

Experts have warned that the next variant of Covid-19 to sweep the world could emerge on Australia’s doorstep, due to incredibly low rates of vaccination rates in Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour, and at its nearest point is just 4km from Australian territory in the Torres Strait. At various points in the pandemic there have been fears that travellers from PNG could bring the virus to Australia.

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New Zealand authorities investigate claims man received 10 Covid vaccinations in one day

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The man is reported to have visited several different immunisation clinics and was paid by others to get the doses

New Zealand health authorities are investigating claims that a man received up to 10 Covid-19 vaccination doses in one day on behalf of other people, in the latest effort by members of the public to skirt tough restrictions on the unvaccinated.

The Ministry of Health said it was taking the matter seriously. “We are very concerned about this situation and are working with the appropriate agencies,” its Covid-19 vaccination and immunisation spokesperson, Astrid Koornneef, said.

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Johnson addresses the nation as Covid alert level raised due to Omicron – video

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Boris Johnson has announced that the government is launching an emergency booster campaign to avoid a severe rise in hospitalisations and deaths from a 'tidal wave' of Omicron. The prime minister said infections of the Covid-19 variant, first identified in South Africa, were doubling every two to three days, and that two doses of vaccine 'are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need'.

Speaking in a televised address on Sunday night, Johnson announced the booster programme would be offered to everyone over the age of 18 in the UK, with extra capacity provided by 'additional vaccine sites and mobile units' and '42 military planning teams across every health region'

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UK’s 1m a day booster rollout is strategy of short-term pain for long-term gain

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Analysis: next few weeks will be tough for anyone who relies on the health service as well as those who work in it

The wording of the four home nations’ chief medical officers joint statement on Sunday was undramatic but still ominous. “Transmission of Covid-19 is already high in the community, mainly still driven by Delta, but the emergence of Omicron adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and healthcare services.”

Given that “vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from Omicron is reduced … hospitalisations from Omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly”, they added.

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Fauci urges Americans to get Covid booster as US nears 800,000 deaths

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Leading infectious diseases official warns Omicron variant appears to be able to ‘evade’ protection of two initial doses

The US government’s leading infectious diseases official, Anthony Fauci, on Sunday stepped up calls for Americans to get a Covid-19 booster shot, as the US is approaching 800,000 lives lost to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Fauci warned that the Omicron variant appeared to be able to “evade” the protection of two initial doses of the mRNA-type Covid vaccines – Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s – as well as post-infection therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma.

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What makes boosters more effective than the first two Covid jabs?

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Analysis: top-up vaccines make key changes to our antibody defences, reducing the threat from Omicron

Covid-19, we should know by now, is a moving target. In autumn the rollout of boosters to older age groups was contentious. Now they’re the single biggest focus. So why do boosters help so significantly compared with first and second jabs, and are we on a conveyor belt towards needing an ever-increasing number of top-ups?

Even before Omicron, it was clear boosters would be required to maintain the levels of protection against infection, although protection against severe illness appeared to be holding up well.

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Who are the rebel Tory MPs likely to oppose plan B Covid restrictions?

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Analysis: distinct camps have emerged in Westminster, from hardline lockdown sceptics to selective rebels

Government whips are braced for a major rebellion by Tory MPs over new plan B Covid restrictions due to come into force this week, against a backdrop of anger over rule-breaking Christmas parties. The restrictions are set to pass – but only thanks to support from Labour.

Ahead of the Commons votes on Tuesday on mask-wearing, working from home and Covid passports, these are the camps that are set to oppose at least some of the measures.

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Covid live news: Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson appears to have broken law over No 10 Christmas quiz

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Latest updates: UK prime minister seen at event that appears to be in breach of lockdown rules last year; minister defends PM insisting quiz was ‘virtual’

Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UK Health Security Agency, has warned that “very difficult” decisions lie ahead for the government and that more Covid measures may be needed.

She told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show:

I think that the restrictions that the government have announced are sensible. I think that we may need to go beyond them. But we’ll need to watch carefully what happens with hospitalisations.

The challenge we have and the challenge government has is trying to balance the risks and benefits to the society, to people, to the population, to the economy, and to health, and they have very difficult decisions ahead of them.

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Austria ends Covid lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people

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Strict rules lifted across most of country after three weeks as case numbers plummet

Austria has ended lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people across most of the country, three weeks after reimposing strict rules to combat a rising wave of coronavirus infections.

The rules, which vary by region within the country, largely allow for the reopening of theatres, museums and other cultural and entertainment venues on Sunday. Shops will follow on Monday.

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UK has Omicron Covid patients in hospital, government confirms

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Top UK medical adviser says growing number of people going to emergency departments diagnosed with Omicron

People have been admitted to hospital with the Omicron variant in Britain, a government minister has confirmed, as a senior public health adviser said further curbs may be needed.

The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said he could confirm there were “cases in hospital with Omicron”. “We’ve been able to test people who are in hospital over the past two weeks, and so there is a lag to hospitalisation,” he told Trevor Phillips on Sky News.

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Sailing away: superyacht industry booms during Covid pandemic

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Record-breaking number of vessels being built or on order worldwide, despite environmental concerns

In an era of environmental awareness and conspicuous displays of sustainability, you might not expect a rise in the number of people with the means and appetite for a £50m floating fortress of solitude.

But, in part because of the coronavirus crisis, the superyacht industry is booming – and the number of vessels under construction or on order worldwide has hit a new record. According to figures revealed in the latest edition of Boat International’s Global Order Book, more than 1,200 superyachts are slated to be built – a rise of 25% on last year.

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‘My son’s birthday party is off’ – the sacrifices UK parents are making to save Christmas

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Families tell of their ‘heartbreak’ as parties and other social plans are cancelled in the wake of Omicron

’Tis the season to be jolly, and last week Marieke Navin and her boyfriend were planning to attend three Christmas parties between them. But now, following the rise of the Omicron variant, they are not going to any.

“I was looking forward to those parties,” said Navin. “But my priority is protecting Christmas. I don’t want my children to be isolating in their room on Christmas Day, or be unable to visit their dad or my parents. I don’t want my partner’s kids to be unable to come to us on Boxing Day. I don’t want to jeopardise the movement of the children, and I don’t want anyone being poorly over Christmas.”

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Omicron is sneaky. It could be fatal for us – or for our faith in government | Francois Balloux

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The week ahead will be pivotal as we track the spread of the new variant and discover its potential legacy

The emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron Sars-CoV-2 variant feels like a flashback to last year’s grim festive season when much of the world went into lockdown to avert the worst of the Alpha variant wave. But though the sense of eerie, impending doom feels familiar, the epidemiological and political situations are different from one year ago.

The Omicron wave represents a key turning point in the pandemic. But no plausible outcome looks particularly auspicious – it feels largely like a lose-lose deal. If if turns out to be roughly as severe as previous pandemic waves, it might normalise harsh mitigation measures and render the prospect of a return to post-pandemic normality fairly remote. If it turned out to be milder than feared, this could spell the end of lockdowns with Covid-19 on its way into endemicity. The cost would be a loss of trust in political and public health authorities, which may make it difficult to deal with future threats.

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Will Omicron kill Christmas? How science stacks up in boosters v Covid variant battle

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Analysis: UK faces grim winter if vaccines offer poor overall protection, but if the virus has weak powers to evade immunity, hospital cases can be contained

Two competing forces will determine Omicron’s impact on the nation over the next few weeks. The power of booster jabs to give last-minute protection against Covid-19 will be pitted against the new variant’s ability to elude existing immunity. The outcome will decide whether our festive season is going to be muted or miserable.

If enough arms are jabbed with booster vaccines, while Omicron turns out to have poor powers to evade immunity, then there is hope hospital cases will be contained and the NHS will be protected. Severe restrictions in the new year – including the prospect of lockdowns – could be avoided.

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Omicron patient hospitalised in NSW as Queensland prepares for thousands of cars to cross border

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Covid vaccine booster shots also fast-tracked on day of large protests in capital cities to oppose mandates

A person in New South Wales has been admitted to hospital infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the first Omicron patient to be hospitalised since it arrived in Australia last month.

It comes as thousands of protesters marched through capital cities on Sunday to oppose vaccine mandates, and Western Australia and Queensland prepared to reopen their borders.

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