Category Archives: Health

Coronavirus Australia update latest: WA residents wake up to loosened restrictions as 1 million download tracing app – live news

Posted on by

Picnics, boating, hiking, camping and group exercise are back for Western Australians as Queensland also prepares to relax rules. Follow live

That statement continued:

We thank Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck and the Chief Medical Officer Prof. Brendan Murphy for joining the aged care industry in constructive dialogue in the national webinar, as we work together to care for and support vulnerable older Australians.

However, we impressed upon them that it is incorrect to characterise the sector as having kept residents isolated, under lock and key, in their rooms. Nor are they secret places.

Australia’s leading aged care providers have banded together to make a statement in response to what the prime minister and chief health minister had to say last week about opening up centres to visits, or face applying to the commonwealth to close.

Almost 1000 aged care providers have signed up to the statement, saying that some facilities made the decision to stop visitation because it was the only way to protect residents, with the decisions being made with “the support of the majority of residents and their families”.

Pressures on aged care workers will further intensify from the major costs of controls and resources needed to continue protecting aged care residents and to allow the safe access for visitors that has been stipulated - but there has been little additional support from Government to achieve this.

The funding provided that equates to an average of $2 per resident per day is not enough for aged care operators to keep winning the fight to keep coronavirus out of aged care homes.

Continue reading...

‘It’s just beginning here’: Africa turns to testing as pandemic grips the continent

Posted on by

Nations battle to contain spread after World Health Organization warns of 10 million cases within six months

African nations are banking on aggressive screening and testing strategies as their best – and possibly only – defence against the Covid-19 virus.

After a slow start, a sudden rise of more than 40% in the number of Covid-19 cases on the continent in the last 10 days – to 28,000 – and a similar increase in the number of deaths – to 1,300 – has worried specialists.

The World Health Organization has warned of 10 million cases on the continent within three to six months, though experts say that the death toll could be lower if authorities are able to move swiftly to contain outbreaks of the disease.

“We are at the beginning in Africa,” Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said last week.


Though some of the worst effects of infection may be mitigated by the relative youth of many people on the continent, others may be made more vulnerable by malnutrition or existing conditions, such as HIV.

Under-resourced health systems are unlikely to cope with a significant surge of those infected by the disease. Provision of intensive care facilities on the continent is grossly inadequate. Many countries with populations numbering tens of millions have only a handful of ventilators.

So far it has been difficult to fully grasp the extent of the spread of the disease in Africa, as testing has been patchy.

Djibouti has recorded 98.6 cases per 100,000 people, the highest prevalence on the continent. But the tiny country has conducted just over 10,000 tests, as many as neighbouring Ethiopia, which has more than 100 million people.

Continue reading...

To tackle this virus, local public health teams need to take back control

Posted on by

A massive increase in testing and tracing should be the next phase, but decades of cuts and reorganisations have whittled away the necessary regional expertise

Perhaps, the most surprising aspect of the British Covid-19 crisis is the extent to which the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments, and the English regions, have allowed strategy to be decided by Westminster.

Health and social care are devolved, and this national epidemic is not homogenous. It is made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of outbreaks around the country, each at a different stage . England had its first confirmed case on 30 January, Wales on 28 February and Scotland on 1 March. Some areas – such as Rutland, Hartlepool, Blackpool, Isle of Wight, Tyneside, Durham, Orkney, Western Isles – had no reported cases until late March, and some even now have relatively few cases.

Continue reading...

Australia coronavirus update latest: rescue flight from Argentina returns stranded travellers as death toll reaches 81 – live news

Posted on by

More than 150 Australians and 20 New Zealanders are on the flight from Buenos Aires after being stranded in South America since the outbreak. Follow live

The question about whether kids and teachers go back to school is looming as a brawl that will escalate in the coming week.

Two Labor-led states in particular, Queensland and Victoria, are on a different page of the textbook to the federal government, which wants schools to be open.

In Victoria, the state opposition has begun to grumble about the extended remote learning arrangements.

The vast majority of students in Vic are learning from home because that is the advice from our health experts.

If we did not follow this advice, more than 1 million children, their parents and school staff congregating at schools could spread Coronavirus in our community.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is today launching a nationwide campaign to make sure people don’t neglect health concerns while we’re all in lockdown.

It’s very concerning that some people have potentially been neglecting their health during this pandemic – the last thing we want is a tsunami of serious health issues and worsening chronic conditions coming after this virus, simply because people have stopped taking care of themselves or consulting their GP.

The reason why we are running our campaign Expert Advice Matters is to encourage people to keep taking care of their health. We also want to remind everyone that general practice remains open and expert medical advice matters most.

Continue reading...

Top Tories join calls to bar Cummings from scientific advisory group

Posted on by

Cross-party demand for transparency after chief adviser is revealed as attending meetings of Sage

Boris Johnson is facing cross-party calls to stop his chief adviser from attending meetings of the secret scientific group advising him on the coronavirus pandemic, as demands grow for the committee’s deliberations to be made public.

The former Brexit secretary, David Davis, is among those calling for Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner, an adviser who ran the Tories’ private election computer model, to be prevented from attending future meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Continue reading...

Matt Hancock can count on powerful support if not 100,000 tests a day

Posted on by

NHS chiefs and No 10 endorse the health secretary as flaws emerge in the structure he leads

Matt Hancock sounded tetchy and exhausted on Friday morning as he took to the airwaves once again to explain the latest swerve in the government’s strategy for tackling coronavirus: recruiting an army of contact-tracers in an attempt to track its spread.

Asked whether his self-imposed target of testing 100,000 people a day by the end of next week would be met, he let out a self-deprecating laugh. The health secretary knows there’s a lot in the balance: the health of millions, his standing among the public and colleagues, perhaps even his career.

Continue reading...

What does the leaked report tell us about the UK’s pandemic preparations?

Posted on by

Leaked National Security Risk Assessment describes threats posed by flu- and non-flu-type infectious diseases

Careful analysis of the National Security Risk Assessment document illustrates how the Covid-19 pandemic represents a hybrid of two of the major threats to the UK anticipated by the British government.

The first, an influenza-type disease pandemic, predicts waves of a novel flu virus striking several months apart. This type of threat represents the basis of the UK government’s blueprint for how it would respond to a pandemic.

Continue reading...

Australia coronavirus update latest: fifth Covid-19 death at Sydney’s Newmarch House aged care home – live news

Posted on by

Brendan Murphy says he is ‘pretty confident’ most will be negative but it is necessary to monitor community transmission. Follow the latest updates

Night has fallen now across the entire continent.

Usually hundreds of thousands of Australians would be up before sunrise tomorrow to join ANZAC day dawn services and to honour those who serve and have served. But coronavirus means this year will be different.

While the day has had its elements of public ritual since 1916, much early Anzac Day commemoration was private rather than public, sometimes conducted at the gravesides of Australian soldiers buried in cemeteries in Britain and Australia. Women were prominent in these efforts, honouring the memories of men they might or might not have known by placing flowers on their tombs.

There are other echoes of the past. Anzac Day in 1919 was also disrupted by a major crisis in public health. In New South Wales, where the rate of infection from Spanish influenza was high and the number of deaths – approaching 1,000 by Anzac Day – was alarming, the government had banned public meetings.

Several key developments emerged from the national cabinet meeting earlier today.

Rules around aged care visits, hopes for a restart of community sport, clarification on jobkeeper payments and a repeat of medical advice for school classrooms all made for a busy day.

Related: Scott Morrison warns aged care homes to end strict coronavirus lockdowns or face new rules

Continue reading...

Welsh first minister to set out plans for lifting country’s lockdown

Posted on by

Mark Drakeford will announce proposals to ease restrictions as number of new cases stabilises

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, is due to set out plans on how the nation will aim to lift its coronavirus lockdown.

The Labour politician will announce on Friday a new framework for easing restrictions and seven questions that need to be addressed to help lead Wales out of the pandemic.

Continue reading...

Why the UK is finding it so hard to reach 100,000 Covid-19 tests a day

Posted on by

A slow start, a top-down approach and long-term cuts to local services meant target was always going to be ambitious

On 2 April, the day he emerged from quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19, Matt Hancock stood at the Downing Street podium for the daily coronavirus press conference and made an announcement that was greeted in some quarters by a sharp intake of breath.

“I’m now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month. That is the goal and I’m determined we’ll get there,” said the health secretary, who had tested positive around a week earlier.

Continue reading...

NHS urged to avoid PPE gloves made in ‘slave-like’ conditions

Posted on by

In securing PPE for NHS staff working on coronavirus frontline, government must not ignore abuse of factory workers, warn activists

The government must not ignore the “slave-like” conditions of migrant workers making rubber medical gloves in Malaysia in its rush to source protective equipment to keep frontline NHS staff safe from coronavirus, human rights groups say.

Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of rubber gloves, but the industry has been accused of grossly exploiting its workforce, mostly impoverished migrants from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Continue reading...

Why South Korea’s coronavirus death toll is comparatively low – video explainer

Posted on by

​On 29 February​, South Korea reported a peak of 909 new Covid-19 cases and was suffering one of the worst outbreaks outside of China. But this week, the government announced a single-digit number of new cases for the first time in almost two months. As of 22 April, there were 238 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in South Korea.

Experts say that the country is one of few to succeed in 'flattening the curve' despite never having a formal lockdown in place​. And with life slowly beginning to return to something like normality, Seoul-based journalist Nemo Kim has been looking at what lessons can be learned

Continue reading...

EU turns up pressure on Matt Hancock over Covid-19 PPE scheme

Posted on by

Brussels says UK was briefed on bulk-buying plan and given ‘ample opportunity’ to join

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is facing fresh pressure over the protection offered to NHS staff after the European commission said the UK had been given “ample opportunity” to join an EU scheme bulk-buying masks, gowns, gloves and goggles.

After a day of confusion in Westminster over the UK’s lack of involvement in the EU’s joint procurement of equipment, a spokesman for the commission appeared to bolster the claim that ministers had taken a “political decision” to opt out.

Continue reading...

What is the EU medical equipment scheme and why did UK opt out?

Posted on by

British government is facing criticism for not taking part in joint purchase of supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic

The British government is coming under fire for failing to join the EU’s procurement scheme for medical equipment, including masks, gloves, goggles, gowns, testing kits and ventilators, at a time when NHS health workers across the country are crying out for more supplies. In the latest twist, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, was forced to deny claims, later retracted, by the government’s senior diplomat that it had been a “political decision” to opt out of the scheme.

Continue reading...

Australia coronavirus update live: Two more deaths reported in NSW as national death toll reaches 74 – latest news

Posted on by

New South Wales chief medical officer says 231 people are now being treated for Covid-19, with 20 in intensive care. Follow live

It has been floating around again for a while, but this morning Josh Frydenberg put company tax cuts firmly back on the table.

Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott told Sky News’s Laura Jayes they were absolutely needed (but she would say that, wouldn’t she).

We’re trying to solve business investment, which was low before this terrible crisis. It’s business investment that drives productivity which drives higher wages. So that’s the problem, let’s frame that up first. Look I think it is important for us to put it back on the table but along with other tax reform. It’s not the only thing that needs to be done. It’s important that we look at the state taxes, the productivity sapping stamp duty taxes, payroll tax. It is interesting how much payroll tax has been deferred.

The whole question of the right configuration of the state taxes. Whether or not we bring forward those other income tax cuts. So it’s not just company taxes but it is important we have a competitive company tax rate. To the treasurer’s point, we’re not asking, in the Business Council, for us to have the lowest rate, we’re simply asking for a competitive rate, so that we can be a magnet for investment in this country.

In case you haven’t seen this as yet, or cried today, I am giving this another run, because we all need a bit of heartbreakingly lovely in our lives.

After noticing that Ken slept with a photo of his late wife every night, one of the carers at Thistleton Lodge presented him with this incredible gift... pic.twitter.com/Q1v8V8HUFS

Continue reading...

Failure to protect: who is to blame for Britain’s coronavirus crisis?

Posted on by

A number of prominent people are being criticised for their shortcomings over Covid-19

The UK’s Covid-19 crisis has reached the blame phase, with Boris Johnson, ministers, civil servants and scientists coming under criticism that they underestimated the threat, were slow to act and are bungling the country’s response amid a wave of deaths.

So who is in the line of fire – and why?

Continue reading...

Our hospital, our NHS: what it was like to photograph an ICU in the Covid-19 crisis | Jonny Weeks

Posted on by

A week in a Coventry hospital documenting the work of NHS staff brought the human dimensions of this crisis home to me

Like many people around the country, I stand on my front doorstep at 8pm every Thursday to clap for carers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet when I did so for the first time last month, not knowing for sure if my neighbours would join me, I realised I knew little of the people for whom I was clapping.

Who are the nurses, doctors, cleaners, clerks, porters, researchers and consultants on whom so many lives depend?

Continue reading...

Victoria police respond to family violence risk during ‘very stressful time’ of coronavirus

Posted on by

A new taskforce called Operation Ribbon will keep police in contact with high-risk perpetrators and their victims

Of the approximately 7,000 calls relating to family violence made to Victoria police in the past month, 14% have related to Covid-19, the state’s deputy police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Tuesday.

When police attended those incidents they were told by the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator that having to stay at home together had exacerbated animosity. Patton said that while there had not been an increase recorded in the number of assaults, police were preparing for such an outcome, and had already experienced an increase in reporting by third parties.

Continue reading...

Milan seeks to prevent post-crisis return of traffic pollution

Posted on by

Coronavirus-hit Lombardy city will turn 35km of streets over to cyclists and pedestrians

Milan is to introduce one of Europe’s most ambitious schemes reallocating street space from cars to cycling and walking, in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The northern Italian city and surrounding Lombardy region are among Europe’s most polluted, and have also been especially hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Continue reading...

Covid-19: is seven days in isolation enough? – podcast

Posted on by

How long should you remain in isolation if you have symptoms of Covid-19? It depends on who you ask. The UK government guidelines recommend seven days from the onset of symptoms, whereas the World Health Organization advises 14. To get to the bottom of this apparent disparity, Nicola Davis discusses viral shedding with Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, and asks what the evidence currently tells us about how long we stay infectious for

Continue reading...