Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria Covid cases drop below 50 for first time since June as NSW records four – as it happened

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Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown extended by two weeks in ‘roadmap’ as Victoria pursues aggressive suppression strategy. This blog has ended

Thanks for following our live coverage of the coronavirus coverage in Australia. You can continue to follow our rolling global coverage here.

A quick recap on what happened today:

Asked if he would step down as premier if the hotel quarantine inquiry laid the blame for the outbreak on his office, Andrews said his responsibility was to keep going.

My position and the responsibility I have is to see our state through this. What is what I’m focused on.

Let me be as frank as I can be: Politics has never mattered less to me. Leadership is not able doing what’s popular, it is about doing what’s right.

The politics of this, that is of no value. The only thing that matters is we all stay the course. We all keep following the data, the science and the doctors and get this done. Then move to the biggest economic repair job that our state has ever seen.

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Covering covid-19 in Africa: ‘The virus cannot stop this life and energy’

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The Guardian’s Africa correspondent on life in a country that has fought and faced down more than one epidemic

In the evening I went for a run, down to the gate from my guesthouse, past a huddle of round huts and through the fields of sugar cane to the lake. A dog barked, a child howled, someone laughed, and tinny music played somewhere in the gathering darkness.

Eshowe, a small town in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, is a place of astonishing natural beauty. The run did not last long. I stopped and watched as weavers, glossy starlings and sunbirds swooped through the trees, catching the last rays of the sun. To the north, low dry hills lined the horizon. To the south, the breakers of the Indian Ocean crashed on miles of wild shore. Eshowe was memorable for something else too: the very human suffering I found there, and equally human hope.

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Political leaders are raising ‘false hopes’ about coronavirus vaccines

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Drugs now under development are unlikely to end the pandemic, the Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar warns

Vaccines will not be a silver bullet to end the Covid-19 pandemic and leaders must avoid creating false hope, a key government adviser has warned.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, writes in today’s Observer that the first vaccines are likely to be only partially effective. Raising expectations and rushing new drugs into production risks damaging public trust in any vaccination programmes that eventually arrive, he said.

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As other cities go into lockdown, why isn’t London having a second wave?

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Experts suggest the capital’s previous exposure, and capacity to embrace home working, may now be inhibiting the virus

It is a question that puzzles both those on the front line fighting Covid 19 and the experts developing strategies to combat its next move: why has London not seen a second flare-up when other parts of the UK are now having to introduce new lockdown restrictions?

“It’s a bit of an enigma, given that London very definitely led during the initial peak,” said Professor David Alexander, who is based at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London.

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Coronavirus live news: nearly 3,000 people in UK test positive in 24 hours

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Significant rise in UK with 2,988 new cases; Netanyahu backtracks on lockdowns for cities with high infection rates; thousands attend protests against measures in Croatia and Italy

More than 200 UN employees have been infected with Covid-19 in Syria, medical workers and UN officials have said.

UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Imran Riza, last week told UN heads of agencies that the global body was close to securing a medical facility for treatment of coronavirus cases.

Up to 300 people who attended a charity football match at a working men’s club on the border of Sunderland and Durham have been asked to self-isolate after 28 tested positive for Covid-19.

Those who attended the event at Burnside working men’s club on 30 August are being told to self-isolate until 13 September.

Breaking: Up to 300 people who were at a charity football match asked to self-isolate, after 28 test positive for #Covid_19

Event was on 30 August at Burnside working men’s club (border of Sunderland and Durham)
 
Durham & Sunderland Council & @PHE_uk managing response.

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Melbourne stage 4 coronavirus lockdown extended for two weeks

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Victoria premier Daniel Andrews says existing restrictions with only minor changes will remain in place until 28 September

  • Coronavirus Australia map
  • Melbourne stage 4 restrictions explained
  • Regional Victoria stage 3 restrictions explained

    • Stage four restrictions in Melbourne will be extended for two weeks to 28 September with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, declaring “we can’t run out of lockdown”.

    “I want a Christmas that is as close to normal as possible and this is the only way, these steps are the only way, that we will get to that point,” Andrews said when revealing a roadmap to eventually lift restrictions which currently include a night-time curfew.

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    More than 1,000 UK doctors want to quit NHS over handling of pandemic

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    New survey finds two-thirds of respondents plan to leave within three years, citing Covid-19 burnout and frustrations over pay

    Over 1,000 doctors plan to quit the NHS because they are disillusioned with the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and frustrated about their pay, a new survey has found.

    The doctors either intend to move abroad, take a career break, switch to private hospitals or resign to work as locums instead, amid growing concern about mental health and stress levels in the profession.

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    Coronavirus live news: India cases pass 4m; anti-lockdown protesters arrested in Victoria

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    India adds 86,432 cases in the past 24 hours; arrests made after hundreds gather for Melbourne anti-lockdown rallies

    The UK government will deliver 250,000 clear face masks to frontline NHS and social care workers to help them communicate with people with conditions such as hearing loss and dementia.

    The transparent masks are made from plastic with an anti-fogging barrier, meaning patients will be able to see the mouth of the wearer as they speak. The Department of Health and Social Care said this would help the millions of people with hearing loss who needed to use lip-reading to communicate.

    In England, coronavirus restrictions are to be eased in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire, Matt Hancock has said.

    Casinos, skating rinks, bowling alleys, exhibition halls, conference centres and indoor play areas, including soft play areas, will be able to lawfully reopen on Tuesday in all three places, apart from Bolton in Greater Manchester.

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    ‘Everyone was drenched in the virus’: was this Austrian ski resort a Covid-19 ground zero?

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    At least 6,000 people say they caught coronavirus in Ischgl, dubbed ‘Ibiza on ice’, and their class action is gaining pace. Those who were there recall a terrifying week

    In the first week of March, Charlie Jackson had an argument with his wife. The recruitment agent, 53, from Pangbourne in Berkshire, was due to catch a flight to Innsbruck for a three-day “boys’ holiday”, skiing in the Tirolean Alps. Jackson’s wife, Carol, felt Ischgl, the resort booked by the group, was a bit too close to the parts of northern Italy that had recently been shut down to contain the spread of a mystery flu-like illness. But Jackson threw caution to the wind: he had already spent more than £1,000 on the trip.

    Ischgl, one of the most popular ski resorts in Europe, is what Jackson calls “a boyish kind of place”. He and his friends had been visiting the town in the Paznaun valley, Austria, for the past nine years. The snow is reliably powdery from November to May. The compact nature of the place means you don’t need a car to get around. The facilities are well-run: Ischgl has 45 state-of-the-art ski lifts, three of which take you directly from the edge of town to the mountain.

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    Melbourne anti-lockdown protests: at least 15 arrested in violent clashes with police

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    Protesters seen chanting ‘freedom’ and hurling abuse at police and media while not wearing masks

    At least 15 people have been arrested at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park after at least 200 protesters defied the city’s stage-four lockdowns to hold an anti-lockdown rally on Saturday.

    Police in New South Wales also arrested three people at an unauthorised protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park while another protest was held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Smaller protests were also held in Townsville, Brisbane and Byron Bay.

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    Coronavirus live news: India cases top 80,000 for second day in a row; Israel to impose partial lockdown

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    India cases top 80,000 for second day in a row; Asia Pacific shares suffer heavy losses; Israel to impose partial lockdown

    US president Donald Trump slammed House speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Democrat was filmed at an indoor hair salon with her face covering around her neck. Trump, a longtime critic of Pelosi, pounced on the opportunity to attack her over the incident.

    “I’ll tell you what, she must have treated that beauty salon owner pretty badly. She uses the salon and the salon turned her in?” he said. “So I just put out that if she was set up, then she shouldn’t be leading the House of Representatives. I want the salon owner to lead the House of Representatives”:

    A groundbreaking new comedy sketch show based on women’s sex lives during lockdown, starring Aimee Lou Wood and Miriam Margolyes, is designed to “claim the stage” for women, its co-creator, Joanna Scanlan, says.

    Sex Lives, believed to be the first interactive comedy backed by the BBC’s commercial wing, BBC Studios, documents stories submitted anonymously by women and has proved a hit online.

    Related: Women's sex lives in lockdown prove online comedy hit

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    Coronavirus live news: no widespread vaccination until mid-2021, says WHO; cases rise across Europe

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    ‘We need to see how safe it is,’ WHO stresses; Cuba welcomes first plane of tourists in months; Italy reports biggest rise since 2 May

    Smoking appears to increase the genetic contribution to Covid-19 infections, a small study suggested.

    The new coronavirus enters the body by hijacking proteins on the surface of healthy cells, in particular a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

    Liberia’s president George Weah has sacked the country’s top health official over his handling of coronavirus testing in the impoverished West African state.

    Mososka Fallah, director general of the Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), was removed from his post for “breaches in the health and administrative protocols that guide the issuance of Covid-19 test results,” Weah’s office said in a statement.

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    Covid symptoms: diarrhoea and vomiting may be key sign of coronavirus in children – study

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    Research suggests stomach trouble more predictive of virus in young people than a cough

    Diarrhoea and vomiting could be an important sign of Covid-19 in children, researchers say, leading to calls for the official NHS list of symptoms to be updated.

    The checklist for coronavirus in children currently includes just three symptoms: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.

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    Test and trace in the UK: how well are we doing?

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    Despite 2.43 people per 1,000 being tested for Covid-19 daily labs are stretched and people are slipping through the net

    Ministers say the UK has a greater testing capacity than other countries of its size, with 2.43 people tested each day for every 1,000 in the population. That compares with 1.15 in Germany and France, and one in Spain.

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    India logs record 83,883 Covid-19 cases in day

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    Cases reach 3.85m as expert claims emphasis on recovery rates fuels public apathy

    India reported a record daily rise of 83,883 coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking its total to 3.85 million cases, just as the country pushed ahead with attempting a return to normality and kickstarting its economy.

    India now has the fastest growing Covid-19 infection rate in the world, and is only 100,000 cases behind Brazil, the second worst-affected country in the world. Experts are predicting that the south Asian nation will soon overtake Brazil (4 million) and then the US (6.1 million) to hold the dubious title of having the highest number of cases globally.

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    Coronavirus live news: leading US Democrat Nancy Pelosi pictured without face covering in hair salon

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    US rejects global vaccine effort; cases rise in India, Russia and Hungary; Australia enters recession

    Greece recorded has recorded the first coronavirus case in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, two migration ministry officials said on Wednesday.

    A 40-year old asylum seeker has tested positive for the virus and had been put in isolation, one of the officials told Reuters. Authorities were trying to trace the people he had been in contact with, the official said.

    I am now handing over the blog to the very capable Amy Walker. Thank you for reading and please do keep us updated on all coronavirus-related tips and stories.

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    Turkey seeing second peak of Covid-19 outbreak – as it happened

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    US president’s move challenged by Congress; Silvio Berlusconi has Covid-19; Brazil’s death toll appears to be easing. This blog is now closed

    We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

    Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to withdraw WHO funding immediately

    Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll appears to be easing for the first time since May, data shows, a sign the Latin American country could be descending from a long infection plateau that has seen it suffer the world’s second-worst outbreak after the United States, Reuters reports.

    With nearly 4 million confirmed cases, the virus has killed over 120,000 people in Brazil. But the level of average daily deaths dropped below 900 per day last week - the lowest in three and a half months and below the rate of both the United States and India, according to a Reuters tally.

    Researchers at Imperial College London also calculate that the transmission rate in Brazil, at which each person infected with the coronavirus infects another person, is now below 1, the level required for new infections to slow.

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    Covid lockdown eased in two of England’s worst-hit areas despite surge in cases

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    Lifting of restrictions in Bolton and Trafford described as ‘completely illogical’

    Restrictions on social gatherings for more than half a million people in two of England’s worst-hit areas have been lifted, despite councils warning the government it was too soon to lift the measures.

    The government pressed ahead with the lifting of restrictions for more than 520,000 people in Bolton and Trafford in north-west England overnight despite a surge in the number of cases in both areas.

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    German minister spat at and verbally abused at Covid protest

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    Jens Spahn subjected to shouts of ‘shame’ and ‘gay pig’ as he confronts crowd

    Germany’s health minister was jeered, spat at and targeted by homophobic abuse as the countrywide protests of a vocal minority of people against coronavirus restrictions has taken on an increasingly aggressive tone.

    The Conservative politician Jens Spahn, a key figure in Germany’s handling of the pandemic, on Saturday tried to confront a crowd of protesters outside an event ahead of local elections in North-Rhine Westphalia.

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    Australia coronavirus live update: Victoria records 70 new cases and five deaths as NSW relaxes border rules

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    In Canberra, the relationship with Beijing will dominate, while NSW premier travels to Albury to ease border pain. Follow all the updates

    Keep an eye on this one

    Despite Scott Morrison announcing it was a priority to cancel international deals by states, local governments and universities, there’s still no legislation five days later.
     
    It’s his usual pattern - make an announcement and get a headline without any substance to deliver.

    The second case in Queensland is a 37-year-old nurse from Ipswich hospital, who was working with Covid patients.

    He had no symptoms other than abdominal pain - which is a rare symptom for Covid - but it turned out that yes, he had it.

    So he is also in isolation. Queensland health minister (and yes, he is also the deputy premier) Steven Miles said the health worker had been taking precautions.

    This underlines how we can all do the right thing by monitoring our health and if we have any symptoms at all that are of any cause for concern, we can go and get tested so we thank him very much for that.

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