Category Archives: Health

Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks: health experts call for caution as Omicron outbreak worsens

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NSW tourism minister expects lower turnout as leading epidemiologist says best place to watch festivities is from home

Experts are urging caution around Sydney’s planned New Year’s Eve celebrations amid surging Covid-19 cases in New South Wales.

On Friday, the NSW tourism minister, Stuart Ayres, said New Year’s Eve fireworks would proceed as planned under the current public health order, despite the growing Omicron outbreak.

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Check mates: how chess saved my mental wellbeing

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Sam Parker’s grandfather taught him to love chess, a joy he rediscovered in the pandemic, along with a deeper understanding of its positive effects on mental and emotional health

My grandfather was a man with a tut as loud as a dropped plate. He’d deploy it whenever you fell short in some way: a length of the pool finished too slowly; a garden bed not weeded well enough; a portion of vegetables left unfinished. But he softened over chess, a game he bequeathed to me over long sessions, played in our pyjamas by the fireplace. Across the board, his sternness would melt into a kind of pensive calm, the admonishments replaced with instructions and then a small smile when he saw the move that would win the game and send me to bed.

He played chess all his life and was chairman of his local club right up until he entered the retirement home where he died, but I didn’t follow his example myself until some 25 years later. By then it was too late to thank him.

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Omicron: bleak New Year or beginning of the end for the pandemic?

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Scientists are cautiously optimistic that the variant may be a sign the virus is losing its power, despite the high infection figures

Once again, Britain is experiencing a festive season hit by waves of Covid-19 infections. Last year, Christmas and New Year were spoiled by the appearance of the Alpha variant. This time, it is Omicron that has sent case numbers soaring. Christmas cancellations have swept through Britain’s restaurants, pubs and clubs and left the country on the brink of another bleak New Year as the NHS warns once more that it is facing the threat of being overwhelmed by spiralling numbers of seriously ill patients.

The scenario has raised fears that this now represents the shape of Christmases to come. Social restrictions and lockdown threats could become our normal festive fare.

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The person who got me through 2021: Heather Phillipson’s sculpture brightened my trips to hospital

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On my way to have painful medical tests, I felt dejected. Then I saw a giant dollop of whipped cream with a cherry on top in Trafalgar Square

Most people were keen to leave 2020 behind but had I known what was coming in 2021, I might have chosen to stay there. From the first days of January I started to experience extended bouts of dizziness – a feeling that the ground was moving beneath me, with bursts of tinnitus, nausea and head pressure thrown in.

One thing I can tell you about near constant dizziness is that it’s not the ideal state to be in if you are trying to homeschool a four-year-old, entertain a stir-crazy one-year-old and hold down a full-time job. As for fun activities: just looking at a playground roundabout was enough to send me spinning out.

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Head of US FDA’s advisory group: ‘We never expected Covid vaccines to be so good, so effective’

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Dr Arnold Monto says he watched as a vaccine was developed both faster and more effectively than any dared to hope – but says it’s unlikely to give ‘permanent protection’

It is likely that in the “before times”, few Americans knew that independent experts advised the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and that the FDA usually took their advice.

Less than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, that quickly changed.

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NSW reports 6,288 Covid cases on Christmas Day as Australia hits record infections

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Victoria has 2,108 new infections and Queensland 765 as tens of thousands around the country forced into isolation

New South Wales has recorded its highest ever Covid daily caseload, with 6,288 new infections announced on Christmas Day, as tens of thousands of Australians are forced into isolation over the festive period.

Covid transmission is also continuing to surge in Victoria, where authorities announced 2,108 new Covid-19 infections and six deaths from the virus.

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NHS leaders alarmed by rise in hospital admissions as Covid cases hit record

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Daily hospitalisations in England up by more than 40% in a week at same time as more staff on sick leave

NHS leaders have voiced alarm at a major rise in the number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19 after 1,171 people with the disease across the UK were admitted in a 24-hour period that set another record number of daily cases.

The latest government figures showed 122,186 cases of coronavirus had been recorded as of 9am on Friday. Another 137 people died within 28 days of testing positive.

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Airport chaos as Christmas flights cancelled over Covid surge – as it happened

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Labor MP Jim Chalmers was up and about on breakfast television earlier today, expressing shock at NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s slow limp to reintroducing mask mandates.

He said mask mandates were just “common sense” right now:

It’s a bit strange frankly that they held out for so long and in that period we probably lost a bit of ground when it came to tracing and tracking outbreaks of the virus, particularly the new strain.

It’s an interesting thought but it’s not a thought which I think should turn into practice. We have a universal health system ... we care for people who need that care. We should encourage people to get vaccinated, it’s the best thing we can do to protect our health, but I don’t think our health system should discriminate.

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‘A breakthrough, not a breakdown’: one woman’s quest to transform mental health care in India

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Psychologist Ratnaboli Ray’s recovery from a mental health crisis inspired her to fight for women suffering in ‘abysmal’ conditions in West Bengal’s state institutions

  • Photography by Ranita Roy for the Guardian

Ratnaboli Ray regards one of the lowest points of her life as a breakthrough. After years in an arranged marriage in which she felt stifled and trapped, her mental health took a catastrophic turn in 1997, when she was in her mid-30s.

“I was feeling very caged, I was not able to express myself,” she says, from her home in West Bengal, India. She describes the psychological symptoms as like a pressure cooker bursting. “I used to get angry, have weeping spells. I was neglectful of my young son.”

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Australia Covid news live: Chant says roughly 80% of NSW cases are Omicron; WA to introduce mask mandate after community case

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WA to introduce mask mandate after community case; SA records 484 new Covid cases; fires break out at Melbourne hotel housing refugees; NSW records 5,715 cases and one death; Victoria records 2,005 cases and 10 death; Queensland reports record 369 casess. Follow all the day’s news live

Covid-19 testing clinics are reducing their openings hours during the Christmas period despite “unprecedented demand” and reports of hours-long wait times in several states.

Guardian Australia analysis shows 77% of the 490 testing sites listed on the NSW Health website on Wednesday will either close or operate on reduced hours through the Christmas and new year period.

Novavax is still going through the approval process. I know they’re getting closer. We’re looking forward to get Novavax into the mix of available vaccines as well. It won’t be until the new year. I don’t know exactly when.

As soon as Novavax is ready to go, we’ll be delighted to get it out there. I know some people have been holding out for Novavax specifically. It will be part of our arsenal and we look forward to helping people access that vaccine if that’s what they want.

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Mandatory Covid jabs in Malawi ‘violate human rights’, say civil society groups

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Measure aimed at frontline workers to reduce spread of Omicron variant may increase unrest in country with low vaccine take-up, critics warn

Civil rights groups in Malawi have cautioned the government on its decision to make the Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for frontline workers.

From January, it will be compulsory for public sector workers, including healthcare staff, police and teachers, as well as journalists, to be vaccinated, after an announcement by Malawi’s health minister, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, last week.

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Covid live: Catalonia to introduce curfew; Italy bans public NYE celebrations

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Latest updates: UK says risk of hospitalisation 70% lower with Omicron; France set to report highest case numbers

The premier of Australia’s most populous state of NSW, Dominic Perrottet, addressed the media on Thursday to confirm masks will be mandated for inside areas and density limits would also be imposed.

As of midnight tonight, we will be requiring that masks are worn in indoor settings.

We are encouraging people, particularly over the holiday period, if you can work from home, please work from home.

In addition to that, we’re encouraging people not to mingle and when you’re out and out at a restaurant or cafe and a pub or a club, please where possible don’t mingle.

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WHO boss: western countries’ Covid booster drives likely to prolong pandemic

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Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says there will be enough vaccines for world’s adults – if they are not hoarded

The world will have enough doses of Covid vaccines early next year to inoculate all of the global adult population – if western countries do not hoard those vaccines to use in blanket booster programmes, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday there would be sufficient vaccine supplies in global circulation in the first quarter of 2022.

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Northern Ireland and Wales to bring in tough Omicron restrictions

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Devolved nations to reintroduce rule of six for hospitality venues and other measures from Boxing Day

Wales and Northern Ireland have announced stringent restrictions that will come into force from Boxing Day, including the return of the rule of six for hospitality venues, in an effort to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

The first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, accused Boris Johnson of being in a “state of paralysis,” over Omicron as he set out a package of strict measures he said would put his country at “alert level two”.

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Data appears to support claims that Omicron is less severe in South Africa

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Scientists warn, however, that lower severity of cases is not fully understood and may not occur elsewhere

South Africa has reported data on Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant that appears to give added impetus to claims the country is experiencing a lower severity of disease.

“In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe,” said Prof Cheryl Cohen of the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), one of the authors of the study.

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Microplastics may be linked to inflammatory bowel disease, study finds

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People with IBD have 50% more microplastics in their faeces but more research needed to confirm connection

People with inflammatory bowel disease have 50% more microplastics in their faeces, a study has revealed.

Previous research has shown that microplastics can cause intestinal inflammation and other gut problems in laboratory animals, but the research is the first to investigate potential effects on humans. The scientists found 42 microplastic pieces per gram in dried samples from people with IBD and 28 pieces in those from healthy people.

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Omicron is exploding – but scientists are better prepared than for any past variant | Manon Ragonnet-Cronin

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We’re making progress in the arms race against the virus, but work in the lab must be supported by public health measures

It’s beginning to feel a lot like last Christmas. Case numbers of a new Covid variant are exploding across the UK, and the prime minister is cautioning that restrictions may be called for. But while the threat of Omicron likely surpasses that of previous variants, our tools to track and combat the virus have also advanced since last year.

The world was alerted to Omicron by the Botswanan and South African scientists who first sequenced the novel variant on 24 November, and it was designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization two days later. It was immediately obvious to them that they had something alarming on their hands when they saw the large number of mutations in the Omicron genome.

Dr Manon Ragonnet-Cronin is an MRC Fellow at Imperial College London and a member of the Imperial College Covid-19 response team

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Covid: how has the pandemic changed in the UK in 2021?

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The year has been marked by the success of the vaccination drive – yet thousands have still died

This time last year, Covid-19 cases were soaring in the UK, hospitalisations were steadily increasing, and the government had tightened restrictions to try to get a handle on a concerning new variant.

Twelve months on, there is a sense of deja vu. A weary public is worried about its festive plans being cancelled, an outcome that would be all the more painful in light of the Christmas party scandal that has enveloped Downing Street in recent weeks.

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Covid live news update: Australia Covid live news update: national cabinet to meet as testing centres overwhelmed; NSW records 3,763 new cases, Victoria 1,503 cases

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PM says mask guidelines up to states; NSW records 3,763 new cases and two deaths; Victoria records 1,503 cases and six deaths; ACT records 58 cases; Tasmania records 12 cases; national cabinet to meet as confidence in interstate travel plummets. Follow all the day’s news

More than 300 doctors around the world have written to deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce today urging him to seek Julian Assange’s immediate release from prison in the UK on medical grounds.

The letter cites concern over Assange’s apparent mini stroke, warning it may be “the tip of a medical iceberg”:

Indeed his symptoms suggest as much. It is therefore imperative that Mr Assange be released from prison, where his health will otherwise continue to deteriorate and where his complex medical needs cannot be met.

Perhaps our concerns were previously dismissed by your colleagues as hyperbolic. They are not. On the issue of cardiovascular pathology, we have been proven right. We do not wish to be proven right on the issue of Mr Assange’s survival.

We implore you, as Deputy Prime Minister, to intervene with the UK Government to seek Mr Assange’s immediate release on urgent medical grounds. We reiterate that he is an Australian citizen innocent in the eyes of the law, and guilty of and charged with nothing in the UK.

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