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Once lagging, Europe catches up to the US in vaccinations
Brussels: Despite a sluggish start, the European Union’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has caught up to that of the United States, where the slowdown of the country’s once-vaunted campaign has contributed to the virus’s deadly comeback.
In mid-February, less than four per cent of people living in the 27-nation EU were at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus, compared with nearly 12 per cent in the US, according to Our World in Data, an online science publication connected to the University of Oxford.
Now the EU has surpassed the US by that same measure, with some 60 per cent of the bloc’s residents receiving at least one dose, versus less than 58 per cent of Americans.
AP
Analysis: No hiding the government’s failures on vaccine supply
By David Crowe
There is no way to rewrite history on the mistakes made one year ago when Australia did not sign enough deals to vaccinate its people.
In fact, owning up to a problem is a good way to make sure it does not happen again.
The Prime Minister receives his second Pfizer vaccination in March.Credit:Edwina Pickles
This is a political nightmare for the government because the failure was born of success. Presiding over relatively low case numbers and deaths compared to other countries, Prime Minister Scott Morrison thought he had enough vaccines for the second year of the pandemic. He was wrong.
Joan Kirner Hospital sites added to exposure list
By Roy Ward
Dorevitch Pathology (ground floor) at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital has been listed as a tier one site on the exposure site list.
A positive COVID-19 case visited the site on August 6 between 9.05am and 9.50am so anyone who was there at that time needs to get a COVID-19 test and quarantine for the next 14 days.
The CafAC Bar (main corridor) at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital has been listed as a tier two site on August 6 between 9.20am and 9.50am. Anyone at the venue during that time needs to seek a COVID-19 test and isolate until receiving a negative test result.
All other parts of Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital have been declared a tier three site with anyone at the hospital on August 6 between 8.15am and 2.45pm who has COVID-19 symptoms should seek a COVID-19 test.
Dance Effects performing arts studio in Ravenhall has also been listed as a tier one site so anyone who was at the studio on August 3 between 4.50pm and 6.05pm needs to get a COVID-19 test and quarantine for the next 14 days.
‘False positive’ test result at NSW mine site
By Josh Dye
An employee at Boggabri mine in northern NSW who tested positive to COVID-19 on Saturday has now returned a negative test.
NSW Health now deems the initial result a false positive.
“This means that members of our team who had been required to isolate onsite since last night can return home,” a spokesman for the mine said.
“We appreciate this has been a long and difficult day for the Boggabri Coal regional communities and we sincerely thank all workers, families and the community for your professionalism and understanding in dealing with this complex situation.”
Victoria declares Cairns, Yarrabah ‘red zones’ from 11.59pm
By Roy Ward
The Victorian Government has declared the Cairns and Yarrabah LGAs as red zones under the state’s travel permit system from 11.59pm tonight.
Victorians are eligible to return to the state but must get tested and quarantine for 14 days while non-Victorians will not be eligible to apply for travel permits to enter the state.
Cairns and Yarrabah have also been retroactively listed as orange zones from 12.01am on July 29 to August 8 when the red zone permit comes into effect.
The Victorian Government wants anyone arriving in the state who was in Cairns or Yarrabah between July 29 and August 8 to isolate, get tested within 72 hours of arriving and stay isolated until a negative test result is received.
New exposure sites for NSW
By Josh Dye
NSW Health has released four new close contact (tier 1) locations where a person with COVID-19 visited.
Three are in the Hunter region and one is in western Sydney.
If you have been at any of the following venues at the listed times you must get tested and isolate for 14 days:
- Kotara - Star Nails - Thursday, August 5, 12.55pm to 2pm
- Shortland Hotel bottle shop - Wednesday, July 28, 8.25pm to 8.55pm
- Shortland Hotel front bar and bottle shop - Thursday, July 29, 9pm to midnight
- St Mary’s - Monfarville Street Medical Centre - Tuesday to Friday, August 3-6, from 9am to 5pm
There are also new casual contact (tier 2) sites.
Opinion: Hard to see the reasoning behind new rules for Australian expats
By Regina Jefferies and Jane McAdam
The federal government’s decision to make returning Australian expats apply for an exemption to leave the country again is the latest in a long line of restrictive measures that has split families and left thousands of Australian citizens stranded overseas. Many of those affected by the latest decision had waited months to be allowed to come back to Australia. Now they must show a “compelling reason” to leave again. There appears to be no clear public health purpose behind this decision, given that return travel overseas does not pose a burden on the quarantine system.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the ways in which Australia’s citizenship laws are predicated on restriction. A number of decisions made over the past 14 months echo a long history of exclusionary rules. The creation of the Australian nation in 1901 itself demarcated who was in and who was out. One of the first pieces of legislation passed by the federal Parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act, aimed at excluding non-Europeans, which paved the way for the White Australia Policy. At the same time, Indigenous peoples were discriminated against and excluded from voting in federal elections.
Australian governments have imposed significant restrictions on our movements across borders.Credit:James Brickwood
The internal border controls instituted across states and territories throughout this pandemic are a throwback to internal regulations on the movement of Indigenous peoples. In the 1950s, one of Australia’s chief concerns during the drafting of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to internal mobility, was to maintain restrictions on the movement of Aboriginal Australians “in their own interests”.
Full list: Cairns shopping centre, restaurant and leagues club among new exposure sites
By Matt Dennien, Toby Crockford, Cloe Read and Jocelyn Garcia
A number of locations around Cairns, including shopping centres, a restaurant, medical centre, leagues club, and pathology clinic, have been identified as close contact sites after a new community case of COVID-19 was reported in the region on Sunday.
Stores within the Raintrees shopping centre at Manunda, a suburb in the city’s inner west, including the Woolworths and Raintrees Tavern, were visited by the infected taxi driver between 2.30pm and 4.30pm on Wednesday, August 4.
Anyone who has been to either location is required to immediately travel by private transport to their home or accommodation, get tested, fill out the online Queensland Health contact-tracing form and quarantine until for 14 days, regardless of the result.
The driver, whose unlinked case has sent the region into a snap three-day lockdown, also visited the Woolworths earlier, on July 29 and 30.
US cases at six month high
New COVID-19 cases in the US have rebounded to more than 100,000 a day on average, returning to the levels of the winter surge six months ago.
A growing number of “multi-vaxxers” are getting COVID-19 boosters in pharmacies even though the US Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any booster shots.
Texas capital Austin alerted residents via text, email and phone call that the COVID-19 situation is “dire.”
“Healthcare facilities are open but resources are limited due to a surge in cases. Everyone needs to wear a mask and stay home as much as possible,” the social media message said.
The city’s healthcare system is being overwhelmed by new cases, with an emergency services official telling the New York Times that available intensive care beds are in the “single digits.”
Bloomberg
Opinion: Kindergarten not year 12 should get priority
By Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has shown welcome concern for children during COVID – and especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom admission to university can be life-changing. Trying to make sure these teenagers can sit the HSC is part of the Premier having her priorities right. But her plan to realise those priorities is flawed.
Instead of getting year 12 students into the classroom to sit HSC trials or exams, the Premier should be prioritising the learning needs of kindergarten and socially disadvantaged students – and working her way up, not down, in terms of her back-to-school plan.
The Premier is keen to help HSC students like Nathan Khoury, of Greystanes.Credit:Janie Barrett
The HSC is about testing what students know and have learned for university admission purposes – not about teaching children the building blocks for later academic success. And to succeed at university, year 12 students are almost surely going to need to be able to learn online, as well as in person.
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2021-08-08 01:38:39Z
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