A team of experts have warned against Australia reopening at 80 per cent fully vaccinated, saying that the consequences of doing so will likely be "irreversible".
A team of experts have warned against Australia reopening at 80 per cent fully vaccinated, saying that the consequences of doing so will likely be "irreversible".
The Australian National University's Professor Quentin Grafton, University of Western Australia's Dr Zoe Hyde and the University of Melbourne's Professor Tom Kompas examined the Morrison Government's national pandemic exit plan – based off modelling from the Doherty Institute.
Under that plan, once more than 80 per cent of Australians aged over 16 are fully vaccinated, we'll begin to "manage Covid-19 consistent with public health management of other infectious diseases" (ie. like we would the flu).
But in their statement, the team have opposed reopening until we're at 90 per cent, saying the current plan to relax restrictions will put too many lives at risk and could hamper thousands more Australians with ongoing illness.
"We simply can't afford to do that, both in terms of lives and long-term illness from Covid," Professor Grafton said the team's own modelling had shown.
"We found substantial morbidity and mortality is likely to occur if the Australian Government sticks to the national plan."
Dr Hyde said that "the consequences of prematurely and fully relaxing public health measures to suppress Covid-19, even after vaccinating 80 per cent of adults, would likely be irreversible, and unacceptable to many Australians".
It comes after a woman in her 30s who had Covid-19 tragically died at her home in Sydney's west, NSW Health announced this afternoon.
Read on for the latest Covid news and updates.
In other news, the Paralympic Games has started.
We're finally HERE! 🇦🇺
— 7Sport (@7Sport) August 24, 2021
Catch the Paralympic Games #Tokyo2020 Opening Ceremony LIVE & FREE on Channel 7 https://t.co/KKreIsP7vV 📺#Paralympics pic.twitter.com/BrtBeDxnTV
Bus drivers fear Sydney’s public transport network is at breaking point, with hundreds of their colleagues forced into isolation and others blindsided by fast-changing coronavirus rules.
A senior transport union official has warned customers will end up bearing the brunt of the pandemic-induced crisis.
David Babineau, the Rail Tram and Bus Union’s secretary of the NSW Bus and Tram Division, said he was stunned by fresh restrictions announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday.
Authorised workers will only be permitted to leave one of the 12 Covid-19 hot spot local government areas if rapid antigen testing is implemented at their work-sites or if they have their first vaccine dose by August 30.
Mr Babineau said union officials, transport bureaucrats met after Friday’s press conference and have since been scrambling to adjust to the “fly by night proclamation”.
The Transport Workers Union has distanced itself from a planned protest by rogue truckies on major highways, which its organisers threaten could “shut the country down” due to grocery supply disruptions.
A man identifying himself as a truck driver has claimed a group of his fellow truckies are planning to carry out protests against lockdowns on highways across Australia.
Truck drivers are at breaking point across the country due to the exhaustion of Covid-19 testing, interstate border closures and deadline pressures.
In the video circulating on social media, the man warns Australians to rush out to grocery stores and buy food “for the next week or two” because supply chains would be interrupted.
I'm an early childhood educator and I am angry. In fact, I am seething with rage and I am not alone.
I am furious with the treatment of our sector over the past 18 months and want to share with you what it’s like to work in a role that is grossly underpaid, undervalued and consistently treated as an after-thought.
When we entered the first lockdown in 2020, most of the population diligently locked themselves away behind closed doors. Schools closed to students other than those who could not be at home, remote working and learning began, those people felt safer.
Multiple regional NSW hubs have been exposed to coronavirus with alerts issued for venues in Beckom, Broken Hill, Dubbo, and Orange.
NSW Health updated its Covid-19 exposure list on Tuesday evening following 753 new locally acquired infections.
Among the latest venues were regional towns and cities spread out across NSW.
Anyone who visited the following venues at the listed times in Broken Hill – in the state’s far west – must get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Big news.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 24, 2021
From tomorrow, 25 August, every Victorian aged 16 years and over will be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine at one of our 50+ state-run vaccination centres. pic.twitter.com/tYRdEoJRw2
Australian darts star Kyle Anderson has passed away at age 33.
Anderson, an Aboriginal man of Noongar origin, played within the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since 2013.
PDC referee Russ Bray wrote a heartfelt tribute on Twitter, posting: “I am absolutely devastated to hear Kyle Anderson has passed away. A nicer person you could not wish to meet. A lovely man and good friend. My thoughts are with his young family. RIP bud. So, so sad.”
Anderson posted an image to Instagram on August 10 dressed in a hospital gown and mask, with the caption: “Getting all too regular now’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSX_s9zBSBG
A 30-year-old mother of three has become the youngest person to die from Covid in NSW.
The Daily Telegraph reported, Ianeta Isaako was found unresponsive at her Emerton home, in Western Sydney, around 3pm on Monday.
She had only tested positive to Covid days earlier.
The publication reported her condition deteriorated quickly before he death.
In a statement NSW health extended its sympathies to her family.
"This trafic death is being investigated by the Western Sydney Local Health Distract and has been referred to the Coroner," the statement said.
A new Covid-19 vaccine could be used as a “booster” with a world-first clinical trial set to get underway in Queensland.
Scientists from the University of the Sunshine Coast are hopeful the possible next-generation vaccine will provide better protection against the virus.
The study will recruit participants who have completed a full course of a Covid-19 vaccination.
The Courier Mail reports, the USC clinics at Morayfield and Sippy Downs will be the first locations globally to trial the virus-like particle vaccine produced by American company Icosavax.
USC Clinical Trials' Principal Investigator Dr Rob Scott will oversee the trial, which aims to identify the optimal dose and safety of the vaccine that has been produced using nanoparticle technology.
CEO of the advocacy group Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), Mary Sayers, has warned that if Australia's most vulnerable aren't vaccinated once we hit our national 70 and 80 per cent targets, "we're passing on a death sentence to them".
Only 51 per cent of disability residents have been vaccinated in Australia – despite both residents and workers in the sector counted among the top priority recipients in the national rollout.
Appearing on The Project tonight, Ms Sayer said that in the US and UK, more than half of deaths from Covid-19 have been in people with a disability, and therefore they must be fully vaccinated before the country opens up.
"When we are talking about opening up, we need to be thinking about who in the community hasn't yet been vaccinated," she said.
"We know this is not just people with disability, it has also been our First Nations community and we also know that many Aboriginal people also have disability.
"So we can't begin these conversations about opening up. Yes, we are all sick of lockdowns, me included, and many families who are looking after children, home-schooling, yet those who are most at risk from Covid are not fully vaccinated, we are really passing on a death sentence to them."
One Aussie state has revealed its next move on a major vaccine development project – which promises to change the way it responds to future health challenges.
Australians could soon be eligible for two new Covid vaccines, created to protect against new strains of the virus.
A clear trend is emerging in Covid deaths and 2024 could mark a significant milestone in the progression of the virus, new data has revealed.