St Basil’s faces class action suit for allegedly breaching duty of care amid Covid crisis

A writ alleges the aged care home allowed staff or residents not to wear PPE and rove freely within the centre despite coronavirus risk

St Basil’s aged care home breached its duty of care and failed its residents, according to a writ filed in the Victorian supreme court over the nursing response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has cost dozens of the centre’s residents their lives.

The writ, obtained by Guardian Australia, was filed on Thursday and lists Effie Fotiadis as the first applicant in a case that could include residents, their families, employees, or the estates of residents at the Victorian aged care centre.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live update Australia: Victoria reports 12 deaths and 216 new Covid cases as NSW records seven cases

Scott Morrison says vaccine will be ‘as mandatory as you can possibly make’. Follow today’s news live

  • Follow our global coronavirus live blog
  • Australian stats interactive; Vic cases map; NSW cases map; NSW hotspots list
  • Sign up for Guardian Australia’s coronavirus email
  • The ABC has announced the 2020 Boyer Lectures to be delivered by the philanthropist and business leader Andrew Forrest will be delayed due to ongoing Covid-19 travel restrictions and border closures.

    The four-part lecture series – Rebooting Australia: How ethical entrepreneurs can help shape a better future – was scheduled to be broadcast on ABC Radio National from 28 November.

    The Crown Resorts casino empire controlled by the billionaire James Packer received more than $110m in jobkeeper payments from the Australian government, propping up the group’s profit.

    Crown’s full-year results, filed today with the ASX, show the $111.3m the group received to pay both working and stood-down employees was almost two-thirds of its profit before tax of $153m.

    This was close to a quarter of the profit before tax the previous year – no surprise, as Crown’s gaming floors largely shut down during the first wave of the pandemic. Crown hasn’t paid a dividend.

    Related: The 'dividendkeeper' shuffle: how jobkeeper payments are flowing to shareholders

    Continue reading...

    Scott Morrison’s early talk of ‘mandatory’ Covid vaccine may drive hesitancy, experts warn

    Health experts say prime minister discussing coercive measures this early risks driving hesitant Australians away

    Experts have warned Scott Morrison’s discussion of a “mandatory” Covid-19 vaccine is pre-emptive and risks driving hesitant Australians away.

    The prime minister announced on Wednesday that a letter of intent had been signed with the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to supply Australians with the University of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine if it clears clinical trials.

    Continue reading...

    Hotel quarantine linked to 99% of Victoria’s Covid cases, inquiry told

    Dr Charles Alpren confirms more than 90% of cases since the end of May are linked to Rydges and almost all the others to Stamford Plaza

    The vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a single family that returned to Australia in mid-May who were kept in hotel quarantine at the Rydges Hotel, an inquiry has heard.

    The Australian Defence Force has also confirmed that an offer of personnel for hotel quarantine was specifically made to all states and territories.

    Continue reading...

    Josiane Ekoli was a brilliant nurse and mother of five. Would the right PPE have saved her life?

    As the government made excuses for not providing adequate equipment, Josiane refused to stop caring for the Covid-19 patients who needed her. Soon she was admitted to the ICU, too

    After a busy night shift at the hospital, there was nothing the nurse Josiane Ekoli liked to do more than come home and wake up her sleeping children. Her 22-year-old son, Kenan, a finance worker, got the worst of it, because his bedroom was the closest to the front door. “Oh my days,” Kenan groans. “Every day, I’m hearing my name, without a doubt. She’s screaming my name. Kenan! Kenan! She knew I hated being woken up.”

    On Saturday mornings, when Josiane had not come off a night shift, she had a routine: at about 9am, she would blast gospel music through the house. If that did not get her children up – she had five, but two of her sons had moved out – she would go into their rooms and start talking to them. At them, really. “Sometimes, she woke me up just to talk,” says Kenan. “I’d say: ‘Mum, couldn’t you wait until I was awake to have this conversation?’”

    Continue reading...

    Ministers criticised over plan to scrap Public Health England

    Critics say PHE is being scapegoated for government’s failings during pandemic

    Senior doctors, hospital bosses and public health experts have accused ministers of scapegoating Public Health England for their own failings over Covid-19 by planning to axe the agency.

    The government’s decision to scrap PHE and merge it into a new body charged with preventing future outbreaks of infectious diseases produced a chorus of criticism on Sunday.

    Continue reading...

    Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry to examine genomic testing in hunt for ‘patient zero’

    Security companies and return travellers may also be called to give evidence at judicial inquiry this week

  • Melbourne’s stage 4 restrictions; Victoria stage 3 restrictions
  • Sign up for Guardian Australia’s coronavirus email
  • The judicial inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program will on Monday examine evidence from the Melbourne health institute whose genomic testing could shed more light on the source and spread of the state’s second wave.

    The inquiry, called by the Victorian government after “unacceptable infection control breaches in hotel quarantine” and chaired by Jennifer Coate, confirmed on Sunday it had added an extra two days of hearings to its schedule for the week.

    Continue reading...

    From giving up gambling and getting fit to coping with grief: how our lives changed in lockdown

    This year’s isolation has been painful, but in some cases it has also provided a valuable chance to pause, reflect and take decisions that seemed unthinkable before. Here, six readers describe how lockdown inspired them to turn their lives around

    As soon as he heard about the impending lockdown, Alex Harrison, 34, drove to his local casino in Liverpool and asked them to ban him for life. In the manager’s office, his photograph was taken and his details were recorded on an iPad. To his surprise, the manager congratulated him.

    Harrison has battled with a gambling addiction for 10 years. When he walked into the casino that day, he owed around £1,000 to friends, family and payday lenders. Occasionally, he would gamble his entire month’s salary on the day he was paid.

    Continue reading...

    Coronavirus live news: new French cases surpass 3,000 for second day; Italy hits record cases since May

    Italy closes all discos; Spain takes new measures as infections soar; New Zealand adds 13 infections to total

    The UK government has said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Sunday, there were a further 1,040 lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Overall, a total of 318,484 cases have been confirmed in the UK.

    As of Sunday, 41,366 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19. This was up by five from the day before.

    Ireland’s health chiefs will meet on Monday to decide if further restrictions are needed to slow a sharp increase in the spread of coronavirus that the government and officials have described as deeply concerning.

    Ireland has reopened its economy at a slower pace than most EU countries but that has not prevented a jump in cases over the last two weeks that led to the first localised reimposition of some restrictions last week.

    Continue reading...

    Victoria records 279 new Covid cases and 16 deaths as NSW reports five cases and one death

    Daniel Andrews expresses ‘cautious optimism’ but declines to say whether restrictions may be eased after six-week lockdown

    • Follow the Sunday coronavirus liveblog
    Shorten lashes out at profit-driven aged care and Morrison government over Covid failings

    Victoria recorded another 16 coronavirus deaths on Sunday as well as 279 new cases, as the premier Daniel Andrews expressed “cautious optimism” that the state’s harsh stage four restrictions were finally bringing the crisis under control.

    “These numbers are heading in the right direction,” Andrews said. “They speak to a strategy that is working. At the same time, no one day necessarily guarantees the outcome – that is a long hard slog.”

    Continue reading...

    Covid vaccine tracker: when will we have a coronavirus vaccine?

    More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progress

    Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

    Continue reading...

    Kevin Maxwell: ‘We need police officers who think different, not just look different’

    The first step to change is to admit that systemic racism exists. To own it. Only then can we root it out

    • Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the world

    Ever since I was a boy, it was my dream to become a policeman. Growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool, amid the riots of the 1980s, it must have seemed crazy: black gay scousers from working-class estates didn’t go into the police.

    I joined Greater Manchester police three months after 9/11. From training, through to my transfer to the Metropolitan police in London, racism blighted my career. I fell ill with depression, and challenged the police in the courts. The Metropolitan police was found to have harassed, victimised and discriminated against me, because of my sexuality and the colour of my skin. I was then forced out after 11 years’ service.

    Continue reading...

    Flu and Covid: winter could bring ‘double-barrel’ outbreak to US, experts say

    But the same measures that fight coronavirus are effective against the flu – and vaccines offer another weapon against it

    Public health experts, researchers and manufacturers warn the coming flu season could bring a “double-barrel” respiratory disease outbreak in the United States, just as fall and winter are expected to exacerbate spread of Covid-19.

    At the same time, researchers said the strategies currently used to prevent Covid-19 transmission – namely, hand-washing, mask-wearing and social distancing – could also help lessen flu outbreaks, if Americans are willing to practice them.

    Continue reading...

    Two women charged with negligent manslaughter over Melbourne homebirth

    A coroner found Caroline Lovell died after giving birth to a healthy baby girl in a birthing pool in her lounge room

    Two women have been charged with negligent manslaughter over a fatal Melbourne homebirth more than eight years ago.

    Caroline Emily Lovell, 36, died after giving birth in a birthing pool in the lounge room of her Watsonia home in January 2012.

    Continue reading...

    Government quietly drops 1.3m Covid tests from England tally

    Exclusive: Double counting raises fresh questions about accuracy of testing figures

    The government has quietly removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of the testing figures.

    In the government’s daily coronavirus update on Wednesday, it announced it had lowered the figure for “tests made available” by about 10% and discontinued the metric.

    Continue reading...

    Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records 14 deaths and 372 new Covid cases as NSW awaits Ruby Princess report

    Agriculture minister calls for federal approach to border rules; NSW on alert over community transmission. Follow the latest news and updates

    This came through late yesterday from NSW Health:

    NSW Health is advising of a new public health alert for Liverpool Hospital and Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club.

    Peter Dutton had some things to say about the border closure between NSW and Queensland on the Nine network today:

    When you get a premier like Annastacia Palaszczuk making announcements about border closures when Gladys Berejiklian is doing a press conference and she is caught out, the question is asked of her and she knows nothing about it, she hadn’t been contacted by Queensland, well you would imagine she would be a bit miffed. I think it is childish. There is a growing mood here in Queensland at the moment, I have got to say, Ally, of people who say if the doctors are saying close the borders or put in place this regime, fair enough, but there is a lot of politics being played in Queensland at the moment by the state government here in relation to this issue. You see brochures now going out into letterboxes in marginal seats and what not, and Annastacia Palaszczuk is walking a fine line here. People will be cynical if they think these decisions are being made for political reasons and her break down in the relationship with the New South Wales premier, particularly for those people who live in the Tweed or on the Gold Coast, is negatively impacting on those lives and businesses and it is unacceptable.

    Continue reading...

    Victoria takes control of three more aged care homes as 278 new Covid cases recorded

    Premier Daniel Andrews reports eight more deaths and the lowest number of new coronavirus cases for more than two weeks

    Victoria’s aged care crisis continues, with the department of health taking control of three more aged care homes due to Covid-19 outbreaks, as the state’s premier raises the hardship payments available to those who must forgo income in order to isolate after testing.

    Victoria recorded 278 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, the lowest number for more than two weeks, with the number of total actives cases also dipping.

    Continue reading...

    Disability care agency banned after degrading death of Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith

    NDIS quality commission says Integrity Care SA is being banned for a number of contraventions following an investigation into the ‘appalling circumstances’ of Smith’s death

    The disability care provider for an Adelaide woman with cerebral palsy who died in “disgusting and degrading” conditions earlier this year has been banned from operating under the NDIS.

    The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on Wednesday announced it was revoking the registration of the company responsible for caring for 54-year-old woman Anne Marie Smith before her death in what police described as deeply shocking conditions in April.

    Continue reading...

    Polio vaccinations resume in Pakistan and Afghanistan after Covid-19 delays

    Fight to eradicate disease getting ‘back on track’ after surge in cases due to pause in vaccination campaigns

    Polio vaccination campaigns have resumed in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the last two polio-endemic countries in the world – after a “surge” in cases.

    The pandemic halted campaigns in both countries in March and confirmed cases have now reached 34 in Afghanistan and 63 in Pakistan – where cases are being recorded in areas of the country previously free of the disease.

    Continue reading...

    ‘Could I feel what they were doing? Yes’: Rob Delaney on the pain and pleasure of his vasectomy

    The actor and comedian decided it was time to have the procedure after he and his wife had had four children. Here he writes candidly about the experience, and why it was the kindest cut

    I got a vasectomy a few months ago. A vasectomy is when they cut and tie off the vas deferens, which are these little tubes in your ball sack (scrotum) so that there’s no sperm (sperm) in your jizz (semen) when you bust (ejaculate). I did this because my wife and I don’t want her to get pregnant again. It doesn’t mean we don’t want any more kids, it just means that if we did have any more, they’d have to be adopted or stolen or left to us because friends or family with young kids died in a plane crash or had their brain stems blown apart by less-lethal rounds fired at them at point-blank range while they were waiting in an 11-hour line attempting to vote in November.

    I figured after all my wife, Leah, and her body had done for our family, the least I could do was let a doctor slice into my bag and sterilise me. Leah had taken birth control for decades, which is a giant pain in the ass and also decidedly sexist pharmacological slavery. IMAGINE a man having to remember to not only take a pill every day, but also having to deal with employer-provided private insurance prescription plans in the US which drop you or sell your plan to another company without telling you, among other crimes. And messing up once could land you with – for example – an ectopic pregnancy that isn’t diagnosed soon enough because you’re afraid to go to the doctor due to your high deductible, so you literally die and are dead, in a cemetery. I think I speak for my bros when I say: “No thanks!”

    Continue reading...