Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

NSW Covid update: Sydney lockdown extended one week as state records 27 new cases

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Focus shifts from eastern suburbs to Sydney’s south-west with Gladys Berejiklian not ruling out stricter measures for three local government areas

The greater Sydney lockdown has been extended for a week after New South Wales recorded another 27 local Covid cases and health officials expressed concern about the growing spread of the virus in some south-western suburbs.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the decision to extend the lockdown was a difficult but necessary one.

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Kenya in rush to vaccinate 4m children as measles cases surge

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WHO reports measles outbreaks in eight African countries amid huge fall-off in jabs during Covid

Kenya has restarted its vaccination programme in an effort to tackle the re-emergence of measles, which has surged in the country during the Covid restrictions.

A 10-day campaign against highly contagious measles and rubella has begun to target 4 million children aged nine months to five years in 22 of Kenya’s 47 counties where outbreaks are highest.

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‘Dire need’: Australia urged to offer more aid to Indonesia as Covid crushes health system

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Critics say government not doing enough to help neighbour as record cases deplete oxygen supplies

The Australian government has been urged to rapidly step up its assistance to Indonesia, amid warnings the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases is fuelling an “escalating crisis right on our doorstep”.

With aid groups fearing the Indonesian health system is on the verge of collapse, and with oxygen and bed shortages reported in some hospitals, there are growing calls for the Morrison government to help its most populous neighbour.

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Crackdown on ‘vaccine sommeliers’ as Covid pandemic grips Brazil

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Although four vaccines are available, some shots are deemed by some more desirable than others

Cities across Brazil are clamping down on “vaccine sommeliers” who seek to cherrypick their Covid shots despite the devastating epidemic still gripping Latin America’s largest nation.

More than half a million Brazilians have lost their lives to an outbreak the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, stands accused of ruinously mishandling. Yet some citizens have shown themselves to be perplexingly selective about which brand of vaccine they receive.

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To mask or not to mask: what will Johnson and others do after 19 July?

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The PM says he will keep his covering in crowded places after England’s rules change but what do his ministers and experts think?

Boris Johnson has said he will continue to wear a mask in “crowded places” after mandatory requirements are dropped in England on 19 July.

“What we’re trying to do is move from a universal government diktat to relying on people’s personal responsibility,” he told Monday’s Downing Street press conference. “Clearly there’s a big difference between travelling on a crowded Tube train and sitting late at night in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line. So what we want to do is for people to exercise their personal responsibility but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves and others.”

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Qld Covid restrictions: update to Brisbane, south-east Queensland and Townsville coronavirus rules explained

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Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced changes to restrictions in Brisbane, Townsville and several SEQ local government areas. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in Qld

The Queensland government has outlined two weeks of restrictions following the short lockdown of Brisbane and surrounding areas.

Brisbane City Council and the Moreton Bay local government area, north of the city, came out of lockdown at 6pm on Saturday, 3 July.

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Prosecutors examine claims Covid spread in Italy before official confirmation

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New evidence ‘could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy’, say lawyers for victims’ families

Italian prosecutors are examining fresh evidence that suggests coronavirus was spreading in the country weeks before the first case of local transmission was officially detected as criminal investigations continue into continental Europe’s deadliest outbreak.

Lawyers representing the families of Covid-19 victims say the medical records of a man in his 50s who was admitted to a hospital with bilateral pneumonia at the end of January 2020 in Bergamo, the Lombardy province severely hit during the first wave of the pandemic, “could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy”.

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Australia Covid live news update: NSW reports 16 local cases; three residents positive at Sydney aged care home

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Two residents of SummitCare home at Baulkham Hills taken to hospital as a precaution and facility is in lockdown; Queensland records one new local case. Follow live

Police have recovered the bodies of three fishermen and their upturned boat near Wollongong south of Sydney.

Relatives raised the alarm about 6am on Sunday after the trio set off from the Bellambi boat ramp in Wollongong about 2pm the previous day.

Tasmanian’s opposition leader, David O’Byrne, has announced he’s quitting as Labor leader, with the ALP investigating allegations he sexually harassed a woman more than a decade ago.

O’Byrne announced he was resigning on Sunday and said while he would remain in parliament as the member for Franklin, he would not seek or accept a position in the shadow cabinet.

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Revealed: rise in stress among those working from home

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New research finds that those living and working alone during the pandemic have suffered the worst effects of all

Working from home during the coronavirus pandemic has caused increased levels of loneliness and mental distress, according to new research into how workers have been affected by the crisis.

With ministers still debating how to manage the return to workplaces in the wake of Covid restrictions, a study by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found that the biggest increases in mental distress and loneliness during the pandemic were felt by the most isolated group – those working from home and living alone. However, in a finding that surprised researchers, people working from home and living with others also experienced a significant increase in loneliness not felt by those working outside the home.

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Brazilians take to streets to demand removal of Jair Bolsonaro

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Calls for president’s impeachment grow amid claims government sought to profit from Covid jabs

Huge crowds of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand the removal of a president they blame for more than half a million coronavirus deaths.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning as calls for Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment intensified after allegations that members of his government had sought to illegally profit from the purchase of Covid vaccines.

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Fears of summer chaos in schools and offices as Covid restrictions are swept away

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Government urged to provide clarity on relaxing of mask and isolation protocols amid rise in cases

Boris Johnson is facing increasing warnings of a summer of chaos in schools and workplaces, amid urgent demands for clarity over the government’s plans to tackle an unpredictable escalation in Covid cases.

Retaining advice to wear masks in certain settings and abandoning quarantine for anyone in England who is fully vaccinated are measures being examined by the government to stop a resurgence in cases and more enforced isolations – something that also risks hitting the NHS workforce.

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Thailand reports record Covid-19 cases as concerns mount about vaccine shortages

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Health authorities reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day

Health authorities in Thailand reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day, as concerns mounted over shortages of treatment facilities and vaccine supplies.

Officials also reported 41 deaths, bringing the total to 2,181.

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Indonesia’s hospitals in Covid crisis as car parks turned into emergency rooms

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Spread of the Delta variant blamed for significant rise in cases that have threatened to overwhelm the medical system

Standing outside the glass wall at one of the emergency installations in a hospital in Tangerang, Benten, Uta Verina Maukar, 26, looked at her mother as she lay resting on a bed. She texted her mother, telling her that she was standing outside. Her mother looked at her from across the room, and with an oxygen mask on her face, tried to sit up so she could see her better. They both looked at each other like that for a while. That was the last time Uta saw her mother’s face.

She died from Covid the following day. She was 51.

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Million Pfizer jabs face being dumped after Israel-UK swap deal fails

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Israel says technical issues have scuppered deal to give UK Covid vaccines expiring on 30 July

More than a million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses held in Israel that are due to expire at the end of July may be thrown away after attempts to broker a swap deal with the UK failed.

Israel had reportedly offered the jabs to Britain in return for a similar number of vaccines that the UK is due to receive from Pfizer in September. Health authorities are racing to vaccinate as many of its adult population as possible before Covid restrictions are lifted in England later this month.

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‘We are a petri dish’: world watches UK’s race between vaccine and virus

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Analysis: UK stands alone in pitting advanced vaccination programme against fast-spreading Delta variant

Not for the first time in the coronavirus pandemic, the UK finds itself in a unique position. Through a combination of history, biology, mathematics and politics, the country stands alone in pitting an advanced vaccination programme against a substantial wave of Covid driven almost entirely by the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Nowhere in the world is the race between vaccination and virus more keenly watched than here.

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Tempers are frayed, we’ve become a nation divided over Fortress Australia and the Covid-19 response | Tim Soutphommasane

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For a while Australia seemed to be on top of Covid-19, but we have lost our way – and an ideology is to blame

Has Australia lost the plot? It’s the question many of us are asking. Our pandemic response, for so long admired as world-leading, is rapidly unravelling before our eyes. And as a nation, it feels like we are unravelling too.

Our tempers are frayed, our patience thin. We all want someone to blame. We’ve become a nation divided: by politics, by state, by age, even by vaccine.

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Australia ‘at back of the queue’ for Pfizer Covid vaccines, minister admits

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Bulk of Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines expected to arrive in third quarter of this year, despite widespread lockdowns

Australia’s finance minister has said the country is at the “back of the queue” for Pfizer vaccines, contradicting assurances from the prime minister Scott Morrison and the health minister that “our strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue”.

Simon Birmingham on Thursday said Australia has had supply challenges “because European countries and drug companies have favoured those nations who’ve had high rates of Covid for the delivery of vaccines like Pfizer”.

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Scientists urge UK to expand official list of Covid symptoms

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UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste

Senior scientists have called for the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms to reduce the number of missed cases and ensure more people know they should self-isolate.

The researchers, who include Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Sage committee of experts, argue the UK’s narrow clinical definition of Covid leads to delays in identifying people with the disease and may miss them altogether, hampering efforts to disrupt the spread of the virus.

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Putin says he was jabbed with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine

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President endorses domestic vaccine campaign but distances himself from tough measure

Vladimir Putin has for the first time said that he was inoculated with Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine as he gave a careful endorsement of the country’s floundering campaign while distancing himself from tough new measures designed to pressure more Russians into taking the jabs.

Putin has cut a mercurial figure during the pandemic, intrepidly donning a medical suit to visit a coronavirus hospital last March and then shunning public events for months, prompting ridicule that he was sheltering in a “bunker”.

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Covid: Sage scientist fears England could repeat ‘mistakes of last summer’

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Prof Stephen Reicher says restrictions may have to be reimposed if reopening leads to surge in infections

A scientific adviser to the government’s Covid-19 response has expressed fears England could be in danger of repeating “the mistakes of last summer”.

Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) subcommittee on behavioural science, said the government may have to reimpose restrictions if the reopening leads to a surge in infections.

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