Category Archives: Health

Australia news live: NSW records seven new Covid cases, six linked to Avalon cluster

Posted on by

Seventh case lives on northern beaches with source under investigation, as Avalon cluster grows to 122. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Sticking with Cricket for a bit, Cricket Australia is edging closer to a decision on where the third Test will be held, with officials saying its a “50-50 situation”.

Preparations have begun to prepare the MCG for the test, as Cricket Australia remains in negotiations with the NSW and Queensland governments.

Related: Sydney Test a '50-50' chance as MCG starts work on standby pitch

The cricket is on, as per summer tradition, but that of course also means we get good banter.

Why are Aussies and Kiwis so good at banter? #AUSvIND #NZvPAK pic.twitter.com/LL55SFOSVZ

Related: Australia v India: second Test, day two – live!

Continue reading...

Ten reasons why we got Covid-19 vaccines so quickly without ‘cutting corners’ | Adam Finn

Posted on by

The speedy rollout is thanks to a combination of foresight, hard work and lucky breaks

The speed at which effective Covid-19 vaccines have come through to authorisation has caused surprise. Compared with previous vaccines, the process has been very fast and so, naturally, people are asking how can it have happened without some kind of compromise on standards and care. Explaining it all as simply a result of the wonders of the latest scientific advances seems vague. So how has it actually come about? In reality, there are at least 10 reasons: some are about good planning, some good science and some just good luck.

Continue reading...

UK scientists trial drug to prevent infection that leads to Covid

Posted on by

Exclusive: Antibody therapy could confer instant immunity to Covid-19 on at-risk groups

British scientists are trialling a new drug that could prevent someone who has been exposed to coronavirus from going on to develop the disease Covid-19, which experts say could save many lives.

The antibody therapy would confer instant immunity against the disease and could be given as an emergency treatment to hospital inpatients and care home residents to help contain outbreaks.

Continue reading...

NSW premier calls on shoppers to avoid Sydney’s Boxing Day sales as Covid cluster grows to 108

Posted on by

Warning comes as all passengers on board a regional flight told to isolate, and alerts issued across Sydney for a gym, cafes, shopping centre, food court and Santa photos

  • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
  • Border restrictions: rules for NSW travellers
  • Second person from superyacht moored in Cairns tests positive

    • Sydney shoppers have been urged not to enter the central business district for the traditional Boxing Day sales after the state recorded seven new locally acquired coronavirus cases and the northern beaches cluster grew to 108.

    The Australian Retailers Association labelled the NSW premier’s plea for consumers to stay at home on “the biggest day on the retail calendar” as “incredibly disappointing”.

    Continue reading...

    Australia live news: NSW records seven local Covid cases after 70,000 tests as Christmas Day celebrations continue

    Posted on by

    Gladys Berejiklian discourages Sydneysiders from Boxing Day shopping; experts fear Christmas could turn into a superspreading event as ‘Avalon cluster’ rises to 108 and spreads. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

  • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
  • NSW premier calls on shoppers to avoid Sydney’s Boxing Day sales
  • Border restrictions: rules for NSW travellers

    • It has been a whole year since the skies parted and the almighty delivered this gift - Barnaby Joyce’s memorable Christmas message for the ages.

    In the video, the Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister declared “I just don’t want the government anymore in my life”.

    Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/QGYPv51pTN

    One of the Australian government-facilitated repatriation flights to bring home Australians from India has been cancelled, as about 39,000 Australians remain stranded overseas for Christmas.

    The flight from New Delhi to Brisbane was scheduled to depart on Sunday 27 December, operated by Qantas.

    Continue reading...

    Olive-stuffing and in-theatre piano: the brain surgeon breaking new ground

    Posted on by

    Italian Roberto Trignani is known for ‘awake surgery’ and other unorthodox methods

    Playing the violin, watching cartoons and doing crosswords: these are just some of the activities patients have performed while having brain surgery under Roberto Trignani.

    Trignani, the head of neurosurgery at Riuniti hospital in Ancona, Italy, was already known for his “awake surgery” techniques, which he has used roughly 70 times in the last few years. But he broke new ground in June this year when a 60-year-old woman prepared stuffed olives as he removed a tumour from her left temporal lobe.

    Continue reading...

    ‘We’re going to save lives’: aid groups look to end of Trump’s ‘global gag rule’

    Posted on by

    Joe Biden’s election as US president raises reproductive funding hopes – but some caution that reversing rule’s impact will not be quick

    Nelly Munyasia breathed a huge sigh of relief when Joe Biden won the US election in November.

    “I am excited and I am hopeful that things are going to be better. We are going to access funding and we are going to save the lives of women and girls,” she says, before explaining how tough the past four years has been.

    Continue reading...

    NSW authorities fear Sydney CBD workers could spread Covid at Christmas

    Posted on by

    Premier warns state is ‘far from out of the woods’ as nine new cases reported and six infections remain a mystery

    New South Wales health authorities are worried undetected Covid cases among office workers in Sydney’s CBD could spread the virus at Christmas gatherings, as the number of infections linked to the northern beaches cluster grew to 104.

    The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, pleaded on Thursday with residents to “limit your mobility” over Christmas as she reported nine new community cases from a record 60,184 tests and warned NSW was “far from out of the woods”.

    Continue reading...

    Australia coronavirus live: NSW records nine new Covid cases as ‘Avalon cluster’ grows to 104 cases

    Posted on by

    Gladys Berejiklian urges people to ‘limit your mobility’ as new rules kick in for Christmas Eve in Sydney; medical experts says New Year’s Eve fireworks should be cancelled. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

    Today’s seven cases linked to the Avalon cluster brings the total number of cases there to 104.

    Chant says all people onboard a Qantas flight from Darwin to Sydney on 17 December have been considered close contacts and have been asked to self-isolate.

    A Qantas crew member contracted Covid-19 who was onboard the flight subsequently tested positive. Chant says they are investigating another potential case but the current data is preliminary.

    Continue reading...

    More data needed before giving just one vaccine dose, says Covid adviser

    Posted on by

    Tony Blair and others make argument for giving more people a single jab rather than two

    A senior scientific adviser has said more data is needed before the government can adopt a proposal to give as many people as possible a single dose of a Covid vaccine rather than preserving stocks so there is enough for a second jab.

    The former prime minister Tony Blair and Prof David Salisbury, a former director of immunisation at the Department of Health, backed the idea on Wednesday, saying second shots should be given only when more stock is available.

    Continue reading...

    What do we know about the two new Covid-19 variants in the UK?

    Posted on by

    One appears to have arisen in Kent, the other brought in from South Africa. Both are highly transmissible

    Two new variants of Covid-19 have been identified as of concern in the UK, both said to be more transmissible than the previously dominant version. Here’s what we know so far.

    Continue reading...

    Australia coronavirus live: NSW reports eight more Covid cases as premier modifies Christmas restrictions in Sydney

    Posted on by

    Sydney to keep 10-visitor rule but from 24-26 December children under 12 not counted; lockdown continues in half of northern beaches, but small Christmas gatherings allowed. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

    The Northern Territory has revoked its categorisation of New South Wales region Illawarra as a coronavirus hotspot.

    Health minister Natasha Fyles made the announcement this afternoon following an emergency cabinet meeting, saying the decision was made because there were no cases from the northern beaches there.

    This is based on the evidence that they’ve had no cases from the northern beaches coronavirus cluster. I know people are anxiously awaiting other local government areas, but the advice from our chief health officer Hugh Heggie ... is that it is safe to remove that hotspot declaration for the Illawarra Shire local government area. The others will remain in place.

    Victoria is reminding people from greater Sydney, the Central Coast or the northern beaches to not attempt to enter Victoria, just in case you might have forgotten.

    If you have been in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, or Sydney's Northern Beaches since Dec 11 please do not attempt to enter Victoria. Only people who have exclusively visited or travelled through other parts of NSW can apply for a Border Crossing Permit to enter Vic. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/bad8irfvqn

    As soon as it’s safe to open back up to NSW, we will. For now, we’re making sure Victoria can stay safe and stay open.

    For more information on the NSW outbreak and a map of locations in each zone, visit: https://t.co/sDimRWNc6F (2/2)#COVID19Vic #COVID19nsw

    Continue reading...

    NHS leaders raise concerns over pace of Covid vaccine rollout

    Posted on by

    Exclusive: more than half of hospital trusts in England yet to receive supplies as variant spreads

    NHS leaders have raised concerns about the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, with more than half of hospital trusts and two-thirds of GPs yet to receive supplies amid growing alarm over the new fast-spreading variant.

    Dr Richard Vautrey, the chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, urged the government to speed up delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in order to save lives. Experts also demanded greater transparency from ministers on how many doses are available.

    Continue reading...

    How KK Shailaja and her ‘Covid brigade’ won a victory against the virus

    Posted on by

    Fewer coronavirus patients have died in the state of Kerala than anywhere else in India. No wonder Vogue India named its health minister ‘leader of the year’

    By mid-May, the Indian state of Kerala had contained the first wave of Covid-19, earning praise for the quick thinking and joined-up response of its health minister, KK Shailaja, and her team. By July, however, there were suggestions that those plaudits had been premature, and that Kerala’s Covid-19 response had come unstuck. Had it?

    Shailaja Teacher – as the 64-year-old minister is affectionately known – had been expecting a surge in infections once India’s lockdown was lifted later in May. Kerala, home to 35 million people, has the country’s most robust health systems, but it is one of India’s poorer states, with one of its oldest populations. About 17% of workers leave to find jobs in neighbouring states, and there were fears about what would happen when, inevitably, these migrants returned. The authorities knew they could not keep Kerala’s borders shut or, given that the state relies on imports, keep it isolated from its neighbours.

    Continue reading...

    Australia coronavirus live: NSW records eight new Covid cases as Gladys Berejiklian gives update

    Posted on by

    Victoria reports one Covid case as the number of new cases in NSW falls for a second day. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
    • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
    • Border restrictions: the new state and territory rules for NSW travellers
    • Australia’s Covid restrictions and lockdown rules – state by state
    • Follow the global liveblog

    Police have charged four men with unlawfully lighting fires on K’gari/Fraser Island that started the blazes which scorched more than half of the World heritage-listed tourism drawcard.

    Queensland Police and and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service carried out a joint investigation and detectives yesterday charged the four men in their 20s who are all from the Warwick area, 130 kilometres southeast of Brisbane.

    Related: Fighting for Fraser Island: how tourism and climate change put an ancient environment at risk

    Berejiklian says she is frustrated with other premiers who are closing borders to the whole of NSW.

    “There are parts of New South Wales completely unaffected by this current outbreak and yet everybody in New South Wales is suffering because other state leaders made decisions,” she says.

    Continue reading...

    New Covid variant in UK: spreading Christmas fear?

    Posted on by

    B117 is more transmissible than original virus, but there is no evidence it makes people sicker

    If a new virus sounds scary, a new mutating virus sounds scarier still. In Kent in September, scientists now believe, somebody with Covid was the unlucky first person to pass on a variant form of the coronavirus that is maybe as much as 70% more transmissible than the version we have been used to.

    The exponential recent rise in cases now blamed on that incident and the UK government response have sparked alarm around the world, with other countries banning flights into the UK for at least 48 hours while everyone figures out what is going on.

    Continue reading...

    Hard lockdown needed to prevent Sydney Christmas Covid surge, health experts warn

    Posted on by

    Raina MacIntyre says without drastic action there could be thousands of cases in early 2021 but others argue NSW Health has struck the right balance

    A hard lockdown across Sydney for the next three days is needed to reduce the risk of Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve becoming super spreader events, some health experts have warned.

    The dual celebrations could lead to thousands of new cases in the first weeks of 2021 without drastic action, warned Prof Raina MacIntyre, the head of the biosecurity program at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute.

    Continue reading...

    Epidemiologist looks to the past to predict second post-pandemic ‘roaring 20s’

    Posted on by

    Dr Nicholas Christakis says once pandemics end, often there is a period in which people seek out extensive social interactions

    It is almost exactly one year since the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was identified by Chinese scientists as the source of a new, lethal respiratory illness.

    Since, more than 1.5 million people have died globally, economies worldwide have shut down multiple times and societies have isolated in their homes and watched holidays pass without the closeness of family and friends. Ahead of us is a year undertaking the most logistically challenging public health campaign ever.

    Continue reading...

    Moderna vaccine shipments begin as US reels under Covid surge

    Posted on by

    Workers began processing shipments of the second US Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday, but across the country the situation remained severe.

    Related: Two authorized vaccines – here's what you need to know.

    Continue reading...

    New Covid strain ‘out of control’, says Matt Hancock – video

    Posted on by

    There is a 'long way to go' before a return to normality, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has warned, after saying a new Covid variant was 'out of control' in the UK. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show and Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Hancock suggested the new tier 4 restrictions announced on Saturday may have to remain in place for several months until vaccines have been administered across the country

    Continue reading...