County reports more than 400,000 new infections but experts suspect figures are gross underestimate
Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India on Saturday in one of the world’s worst outbreaks.
India reported a national record of 4,187 new deaths on Saturday.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says India travel ban will not be extended and has committed to three repatriation flights before the end of May. Follow latest updates
The Covid-19 inquiry is hearing from Australians stranded in India, including Sunny, who traveled to India in May 2020 because his father was in a critical condition with no support during India’s coronavirus lockdown.
Sunny’s father passed away on 1 June 2020 while Sunny was in hotel quarantine in Dehli. He wants to bring his mother home to Australia with him, but his flights in July 2020 were cancelled due to the Melbourne lockdown.
Sunny said it was “next to impossible” to come back with 10,000 stranded Australians seeking seats on Air India flights and no Qantas repatriation flights until November. He paid $10,000 to fly to Australia from Japan, but was bumped from the flight.
Sunny said the Australian government had been “totally insensitive to stranded Australians” after he suffered “11 months of misery”.
Sunny and his mother live in an area experiencing a “tsunami of infections”, with 60-70% of people on the street infected with Covid-19. He said they lived holed up in the house “in fear for our lives” but worried it was only a matter of time before they were infected.
Sunny quoted the advice of the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, that the India travel ban could, in the worst-case scenario, result in the death of Australians in India.
He called for a comprehensive schedule of repatriation flights to get all Australians in India and elsewhere home.
Meg, another Australian in India, has told the committee she was stranded in India after she travelled there on holiday in January 2020.
Meg was unable to fly back in October when her Cathay Pacific flight via Hong Kong was cancelled, and she hasn’t been able to get a seat in the “raffle” of respite or charter flights.
She said:
The daily fear of going out and contracting Covid was with us every day and it it still is now, the situation is so bad. The Australian government hasn’t provided any kind of emotional support to those stranded in India. We are part of Facebook and Whatsapp groups – people are depressed about the situation. Emotionally people are so down and depressed.
We haven’t really received anything from the high commission. Every time I’ve called for help, guidance, the phone would just ring out no matter how many times you call.
The website for the new Labor campaign we mentioned earlier is now live. It is seen as a bit of an opening salvo for an election which could be more than a year away.
Continue reading...The US and Germany are at odds on the issue of waivers for patents on Covid-19 vaccines, as Berlin argued that a waiver would not increase production and would inhibit future private sector research.
The disagreement is the first major rift between the two economic powers since Joe Biden took office, and threatens to deadlock discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and sour relations within the G7 group of major industrialised democracies.
Continue reading...Analysis: Joe Biden’s support for idea is vital but it won’t happen without backing of other rich nations
It was a “seismic decision” by Joe Biden, the US president, say campaigners who have fought for the demolition of patent protection on vaccines and drugs for decades. The US administration has amazed supporters and critics alike by throwing its considerable weight behind the pleas of South Africa, India and about 100 developing countries at the World Trade Organization to overturn patents on Covid vaccines in the interests of getting more of them, more cheaply and faster, to huge populations in need.
Patents preserve the profits of the multinational companies that make drugs and vaccines. They make it illegal for up to 20 years for manufacturers of generic medicines to turn out cheap copycat versions. In this pandemic where, as the World Health Organization says, no one is safe until everyone is safe, there is a powerful moral case for ditching them.
Continue reading...Hospital in Zanzibar and support for child workers in Bangladesh among approved projects to miss out as £2.1m of funding cancelled
The UK has scrapped three rounds of grants to small international development charities, prompting fury that it has wiped out funding for 42 projects around the world to save “less than the [£2.6m] cost of the Downing Street press room”.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told charities last week that rounds six, seven and eight of the Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) would not go ahead because of aid cuts, cancelling in total about £2.1m of funds earmarked for new and future programmes, including many that had been approved.
Continue reading...Country appeals for international help, with vaccines in short supply and a reported 47% positivity rate
Nepal is struggling to contain an explosion in Covid-19 cases, as fears grow that the situation in the Himalayan country may be as bad, if not worse, than in neighbouring India, with which it shares a long and porous border.
Following warnings by health officials earlier this week that the country was on the brink of losing control of its outbreak, Nepal has appealed for urgent international help.
Continue reading...Investing in midwifery could prevent two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, but investment and training are urgently needed
The world is facing a shortage of 900,000 midwives, with more than half the shortfall in Africa, where nearly two-thirds of maternal deaths occur, according to a new survey.
Insufficient resources and a failure to recognise the importance of the role mean there has been little progress since the last study in 2014, according to the State of the World’s Midwifery report, which looked at 194 countries.
Continue reading...Mask-wearing mandatory for all indoor public venues, including public transport, as health authorities brace for more coronavirus cases due to the level of activity of a man in his 50s while infectious. Follow latest updates
Fairly wild photo of former Australian cricketer Brett Lee and broadcaster Neroli Meadows on a flight out of India (not sure where they’re going, surely we won’t lock up Bing, it’s been a big enough week for former Australian test cricketers as it is).
☣️ As COVID-safe as it gets …
Brett Lee and Neroli Meadows are prepared for the task to start their journey from India.
@Neroli_Meadows #IPL #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/xGQIdvCy1P
This is quite a wonky but important national security story: there’s concern that the independent monitor of intelligence and security agencies could become too close to them.
A government member of parliament’s security committee has questioned whether the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is too close to the agencies it is supposed to be monitoring, AAP reports.
The committee is scrutinising proposed laws intended to keep Australia’s close-knit network of intelligence agencies in check.
Liberal committee member Celia Hammond gathered evidence at Thursday’s hearing about the practice of intelligence agencies getting pre-operational advice from IGIS.
“Overall I think the danger, even with the best will in the world, is huge,” said Bret Walker SC, chair of the Law Council of Australia’s constitutional law committee and member of its criminal law committee.
“I think it is depriving oversight agencies of a critical degree of detachment.”
Just like judges don’t have lunch with litigants, consulting the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission about a transaction that might be insider trading was a very bad idea, Mr Walker said.
“There is a real risk, a constant one, of all oversight supervisory bodies engaged in this sector of government activity, of those of us doing that work, being duchessed by the people we are meaning to be supervised.”
The new bill will expand the remit of the inspector-general to include ACIC and AUSTRAC, which gathers financial intelligence on money laundering, organised crime, welfare fraud, tax evasion and terrorism financing.
The committee also heard that the oversight bill is not dependent on the passage of the identify and disrupt bill that will add to surveillance powers and warrants for the Australian Federal Police and ACIC.
Inspector-General Christopher Jessup QC said it was critical in a democracy that intelligence agencies were subject to strong oversight and accountability mechanisms.
“Indeed, independent and credible oversight of intelligence activities is a core element of the public’s trust in intelligence agencies and their operations,” Dr Jessup said.
But the bill doesn’t include any intelligence functions of the federal police and Home Affairs.
Commonwealth Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe said there were already overlaps engineered into the system and the bill would add to them, but they could refer complaints or matters to IGIS.
“I have very specific oversight powers with respect to the various covert and intrusive regimes that exist for law enforcement,” Mr Manthorpe said
“But I also have a broad jurisdiction as the ombudsman under the Ombudsman Act to look at and inquire into complaints of a very wide array about administration in the Australian public sector.”
For the Morrison government, the bill introduced last December is in line with last year’s review of intelligence laws by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson who also served as Defence secretary and foreign affairs chief.
Critics say the latest Richardson review is a watered down version of the Independent Intelligence Review of 2017, which found a “compelling case” to also include the federal police and Home Affairs.
George Williams, head of the Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law, said the bill would leave significant gaps and wanted it extended to include all intelligence functions across government.
“It requires a specialised kind of oversight - the gold standard that IGIS provides,” Professor Williams said.
He also called for a broader body of work on Australia lacking the parliamentary oversight enjoyed by other members of Five Eyes, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom where parliamentary committees exercise more influence on powerful agencies.
More than 9,000 Australians remain trapped in India by the Coalition’s Covid travel ban. Many travelled before the crisis to visit sick and dying relatives, and say they are angry at their treatment. Here are six of their stories
The backlash has been fierce in the days since the Australian government moved to make it a criminal offence for its citizens to return from Covid-ravaged India.
Members of the Morrison government have denounced their own policy, while medical experts and international human rights groups, including the United Nations, have called for an immediate reversal of the Biosecurity Act determination.
Continue reading...First research of its kind shows power of vaccines to stem pandemic, cutting hospitalisation, death and infection rates
Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have proved more than 95% effective against infection, hospitalisation and death from Covid-19 in Israel, the country with the highest proportion of its population vaccinated in the world, research has found.
One shot of the vaccine was partially effective, offering 58% protection against infection, 76% against hospitalisation, and 77% against death. The authors of the observational study in the Lancet medical journal say this shows the importance of having the second shot.
Continue reading...Holliday says she hopes her announcement helps to stop the idea that ‘only very underweight people can have anorexia’
Eating disorder campaigners have hailed a decision by the American plus-size model Tess Holliday to announce she is receiving treatment for anorexia, saying that it is helping to stop the idea that “only very underweight people can have anorexia”.
Holliday, who has 2.1 million followers on Instagram and has been featured on the pages of Vogue, recently wrote on Twitter: “I’m anorexic and in recovery … I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness and equates that to worth but I get to write my own narrative now. I’m finally able to care for a body that I’ve punished my entire life and I am finally free.”
Continue reading...Contracts to increase capacity handed to 17 companies, some of whom had donated to Conservatives
The government has been urged to publish details of up to £2bn in Covid-19 contracts awarded to private healthcare companies, including some that have helped fund the Conservative party.
Contracts to provide extra capacity during the pandemic have been handed to 17 firms since March 2020.
Continue reading...Daily life will vary depending on where you live, and how local officials decide to implement – or ignore – public health measures
For many months, members of the public have equated a return to “normal life” with the phrase “herd immunity”: that threshold reached when the Covid-19 pandemic would be boxed in by immunization campaigns, find no new hosts and society would return to a 2019-style normal.
Continue reading...Analysis: the vaccine strategy and staggered easing of restrictions have worked well. The next step is crucial
The handling of the coronavirus crisis in the UK has provided few moments to celebrate, but the day we reach zero deaths from the disease will clearly be one to toast. That day may not be far off. On Tuesday, the UK reported four Covid deaths within 28 days of a positive test. On Monday it was only one. Months of painful lockdown, in the face of more transmissible variants, and the rapid rollout of effective vaccines, have proven their worth. We have good reason to feel optimistic for the months ahead.
No one will have forgotten the brutal winter. In January alone, the UK reported nearly 32,000 Covid deaths, an appalling tally directly linked to locking down too late. In April, the death toll fell to 753. This month, scientists advising the government expect deaths to fall further. It is worth remembering that it’s been more than nine months since the UK last reported zero Covid deaths. We may see more in May, though people will continue to die of Covid, and the numbers might well rise again when restrictions are lifted on indoor mixing.
Continue reading...Cricketer Michael Slater adds to voices condemning ban after chief medical officer Paul Kelly warns it could cause the deaths of Australians overseas. Follow live
Scientists have told a senate inquiry that new national environmental standards proposed by the Morrison government are “not scientifically credible” and that the lack of action by governments to address the decline of the country’s wildlife is “astonishing”.
The Business Council of Australia has called on the Morrison government to set out how it will respond to all of the recommendations of a review of Australia’s national environmental laws.
Related: Coalition prepared transfer of environmental powers to states months before EPBC review reported
Related: Morrison government flouts own review by proposing 'watered down' environmental standards
“Regrettably the standards that are now proposed as interim standards are not scientifically credible. They will not achieve the goals in the view of the academy.
The ABC is reporting Victoria’s transport department has referred an allegation that Tasmanian Liberal candidate Adam Brooks used a fake driver’s licence to Tasmania police.
This has not yet been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia.
The department confirmed it was investigating the claim on Friday, after the ABC reported a Sydney woman had alleged Mr Brooks showed her what appeared to be a VicRoads licence to convince her he was actually named Terry.
Continue reading...Revolutionary HeartFlow technology turns CT scan into 3D image, allowing treatment five times faster
Patients with life-threatening coronary heart disease will be treated five times faster thanks to 3D scans being introduced on the NHS that allow for a diagnosis in just 20 minutes.
The revolutionary technology can turn a regular CT scan of the heart into a 3D image, allowing doctors to diagnose them rapidly, NHS England said.
Continue reading...Even short, temporary increases in airborne particles can damage brain health, research suggests
Temporary rises in air pollution may impair memory and thinking in older men, according to research that indicates even short-term spikes in airborne particles can be harmful to brain health.
Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators.
Continue reading...Lack of research into area means children are being sent away from A&E and parents told they are overanxious
On Christmas Day, Gail Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter said she was in so much pain she thought she would die. Liliana had been briefly admitted to hospital with Covid in September. Her symptoms never went away and, as time went on, new ones had emerged.
“For months she had a relentless, agonising headache, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue and insomnia, but the worst thing was the agonising nerve pain,” said Jackson. “I couldn’t even touch her without her screaming in pain.”
Continue reading...Health minister joins Scott Morrison in defending ban; over-50s eligible for Covid vaccine. Follow latest updates
Liberal senator Jane Hume is asked about her government’s controversial move to make it a criminal offence to enter Australia for citizens who have been in India in the last 14 days.
Hume told the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas the punishments are “a function of the Biosecurity Act” that was introduced with Labor’s support.
“The most important thing here is we’re keeping Australians safe”
No-one is saying this is an easy decision stop in fact, it is a very, very difficult decision to make but I think Australians realise how fortunate we are to be able to live in a country that is largely Covid free and our economy is back on track.
When we see the heartbreaking images of people in India, 300,000 cases a day, 90 million people infected and 200,000 deaths, I think we all fear that third wave.”
It is not a decision made lightly and we are trying to help India in any way we can.”
We don’t want to see anybody charged, we want to see the borders open and for Australians to be able to come home again and we will do that as soon as we possibly can safely.”
Jane Hume, the minister for superannuation and financial services, has been speaking about the government’s proposed $1.7bn increase to the childcare subsidy, which will see the subsidy for families with two children lifted to a maximum of 95% and remove the cap on subsidies for higher-income earners.
Hume said it’s better than more generous proposals from Labor because the Coalition’s plan “is aimed at lower-middle-income workers and people going back to work, study or doing charity work”.
Continue reading...Australians trying to return home from India could face fine or jail; Indian government ignored warnings on variant, scientists say
That’s it from the global blog team. Thanks for following our coverage..
Continue reading...