Mock hospital drills held as new Omicron variant suspected of causing highest number of infections since 2022
India has experienced its highest number of Covid infections in months, reportedly caused by a new variant, with almost 8,000 new cases reported on Wednesday.
Mock drills were carried out in hospitals and some states reintroduced mask mandates over concerns at the increase, with more than 40,000 active cases across India, the highest since last year.
Continue reading...Reported death toll surges to 72,000 after zero-Covid restrictions lifted; some experts estimate 1m deaths
About 80% of China’s population has been infected with Covid-19 since restrictions were lifted in early December, Chinese health authorities have said.
The figure, which would equate to about 1.2 billion people but cannot be confirmed by outside bodies, prompted some pandemic experts to estimate that more than 1 million may have died – far more than the government’s official tally of about 72,000.
Continue reading...Despite public bullishness, overflowing hospitals across the country suggest its leader may have made a huge miscalculation
China’s leader Xi Jinping told his country it stands on “the right side of history” in a new year address on Saturday, but experts have warned that the president starts 2023 diminished by his chaotic U-turn on Covid strategy.
He may struggle to deflect blame for the human and economic costs of zero-Covid’s failure, and control the national narrative, even if public signs of dissent are crushed.
Continue reading...Many city workers heading home for holiday in late January are likely to take disease with them
China is preparing for another wave of Covid to hit its more vulnerable countryside in early 2023, as the current wave of infections overwhelms hospitals and intensive care units in many cities.
The lunar new year, China’s most important holiday, falls in late January. It offers a chance of reunion after years of separation under the harsh internal travel restrictions and lockdowns of the previous zero-Covid policy.
Continue reading...Italy urges action at European level as more than 50% of recent arrivals from China test positive at Milan airport
Member states of the European Union have resisted pressure from Italy to immediately impose mandatory anti-Covid checks on travellers entering the borderless Schengen area from China, with health officials in Brussels saying they would instead continue to monitor the consequences of Beijing’s rapid rollback of its previously stringent hygiene restrictions.
In recent days more than 50% of passengers from China at Milan’s Malpensa airport have tested positive for the virus, and on Wednesday Italy brought back mandatory coronavirus tests for everyone arriving from China, after reports of rising infection rates in the world’s most populous country.
Continue reading...Dramatic U-turn following widespread unrest leaves country ill-prepared for Omicron
The portable PCR testing booth dangled in the air over a dark Beijing street, captured on camera as it was winched away by a crane in the middle of the night. The image spread rapidly across Chinese social media, the perfect symbol of the bewilderingly rapid end of a draconian era.
In the face of the most widespread national protests since the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators in 1989, the Chinese government has abruptly abandoned its flagship zero-Covid policy.
Continue reading...Fauci and Jha comments come amid campaign to encourage public to get the new coronavirus boosters as well as flu shots
White House public health officials offered cautious optimism that Americans could begin to move on from coronavirus, but cautioned that keeping immunity vaccination up-to-date and combating scientific disinformation remained key for the country to successfully emerge from the three-year Covid-19 pandemic.
“If you look at where we were a year ago at this time, when [coronavirus variant] Omicron started to surge, we were having 800,000 to 900,000 infections and 3,000 to 4,000 deaths [a day]. Today, we had less than 300 deaths. Yesterday, we had 350 deaths, and…anywhere from 27,000 to 45,000 cases” Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the US president, said.
Continue reading...Industry minister says gas companies are ‘not picking up the signals’. Follow all the day’s news live
Gas supply not a problem, ‘glut of greed is’, industry minister says
Husic:
This is not a shortage of supply problem; this is a glut of greed problem, that has to be basically short-circuited and common sense prevail.
The pricing mechanism is the one that I think needs to be seriously examined.
The LNG exporters are offering gas to the domestic market at prices they couldn’t reasonably expect on the international market.
We have the ACCC looking at that [code of conduct] and that code of conduct is to help better guide the way in which these contracts get negotiated … in terms of the other areas, we want to work through that internally.
If you look at what the treasurer has said over the last few days, he is examining those type of options and again that will be in the mix of things he thinks through.
I think the bigger focus long-term is the price mechanism.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Kerry Chant expected to reiterate importance of vaccine boosters as Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and XBB tipped to become dominant
A new wave of Covid-19 infections is looming in New South Wales, the state’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, will warn on Thursday, with transmission of the virus predicted to increase in coming weeks.
It follows Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, making a similar announcement last week, with Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and XBB tipped to overtake BA.5 as the dominant variants throughout Australia.
Continue reading...Chief medical officers said the wave of Omicron variants was ‘subsiding’, although ‘further surges are likely’
The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been downgraded to level 2, meaning the virus is in “general circulation” but healthcare pressures and transmission are “declining or stable”.
The chief medical officers of the UK nations and the national medical director of the NHS in England have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level be moved down from level 3 amid falling cases. They said the Covid-19 wave of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 was “subsiding”.
Continue reading...Cases now falling among staff and residents but nurses union says preparation for next wave should start immediately
The number of active Covid cases in the aged care workforce doubled in a single month in July, placing a huge burden on an already overstretched workforce.
Analysis of recent Covid data shows a rapid and sharp increase in case numbers among aged care staff as the current Omicron wave peaked in the sector at the end of July.
Continue reading...Former paediatric neurologist was speaking about the risk of long Covid when opposition MPs, most of whom were not wearing masks, interjected
Independent MP Monique Ryan, a former paediatric neurologist, has rebuked Coalition MPs for not wearing masks in the House of Representatives.
Ryan, who unseated Josh Frydenberg from his inner Melbourne seat of Kooyong at the May election, was heckled from the Coalition benches after she asked the health minister, Mark Butler, about how the government planned to manage the looming burden of long Covid.
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Continue reading...President feels well, White House says, after he tests positive only days after he tested negative
Joe Biden continued to test positive for coronavirus on Sunday and will “continue his strict isolation measures” his physician said.
The US president feels well, the White House said. Biden tweeted about the economy and about regretting being unable to meet in person to commiserate with military veterans and their families visiting Capitol Hill in support of a long-awaited bipartisan bill that would expand healthcare access for those exposed to toxic burn pits.
Continue reading...Experts say lower ICU figures partly due to aged care deaths, while AMA vice president labels number of Covid patients ‘massive’
The number of Australians in hospital with Covid-19 has reached the highest point of the entire pandemic, according to data from CovidLive.
On Monday, there were 5,429 Covid patients in hospital, surpassing the previous record of 5,390 set in late January.
Continue reading...Unions and providers welcome one-month extension of workforce support but say tens of thousands of aged care workers unavailable
The aged care sector has warned that a pledge of additional military assistance will not be enough to solve the “stark” staff shortages linked to the current Covid-19 wave, which has seen the number of active outbreaks and the weekly death toll nearly double in a single month.
The federal government announced overnight it would extend Australian defence force support for aged care from its previous August endpoint until the end of September, plus boost the available military workforce by more than 200 personnel to help the sector cope with the current Omicron wave.
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Continue reading...Ashish Jha, coronavirus response coordinator, and physician Kevin O’Connor say president contracted BA.5 variant
Joe Biden is “feeling well” and “doing just fine” after testing positive for Covid, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Ashish Jha said: “So it is the BA.5 variant, which is about 80% of infections. But thank goodness, our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president’s doing well.
Continue reading...Vaccine inequity and emerging variants mean the future of the pandemic is increasingly uncertain, researchers say
In May 2021, Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, described how Covid vaccines were our “ticket out of the pandemic”. Vaccination, he said, would give Australians “a life with more certainty”.
More than one year later, Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is among the highest in the world.
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Continue reading...No change in Operation Sovereign Borders policy
Clare O’Neil is asked about the desperate situation in Sri Lanka, where many people are trying to find a way out.
Operation Sovereign Borders is Australian government policy.
Premier, Daniel Andrews, announces a $162m package to fund specialist staff across 12 hospitals as Covid-related absentee rates climb
Victoria’s ailing public hospitals will be topped up with an extra 400 health workers to combat rising Covid hospitalisations and staff absenteeism.
A $162m package to respond to the emerging Omicron BA.4 and 5 variants, which are leaving more people in hospital and healthcare workers sick, was announced by the Victorian government on Sunday.
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Continue reading...The $750 payment for those who need to isolate due to Covid has been extended through September, following pressure on the government
Reinstating Covid-19 isolation payments was a necessary move in the wake of rising cases despite criticism the government was slow in doing so, according to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
With infections continuing to increase, a decision was made on Saturday to restore the leave pay measure until the end of September.
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