Health News at Your Fingertips

Here’s a wrap of the Covid situation in the ACT, via AAP:

Two more people have died from Covid-19 in the ACT, as the territory records 28 new community cases.

The two deaths announced on Monday, both women in their 80s, take the toll from the current outbreak to five.

One was a woman from an aged-care facility in Canberra’s north who was receiving palliative care, while the other was admitted to Canberra Hospital on Friday.

Of the 28 new cases, 14 have been linked to existing infections, while 14 are under investigation.

There were eight new cases that were in quarantine during their infectious period, while 16 were infectious in the community.

The new case numbers mean the ACT has recorded more than 1,000 infections since its latest Covid outbreak began in August.

There are 16 patients with the virus in Canberra hospitals, with five of those in intensive care and one on a ventilator.

While vaccine numbers are high in the ACT, health authorities have warned people not to become complacent.

Minor Covid-19 restrictions were pulled back in Canberra on Friday ahead of the ACT’s lockdown easing on October 15.

The new measures allow for up to two people to visit another household.

The disability royal commission has called the Covid-19 vaccine rollout “seriously deficient” and warned against opening up before everyone’s had a chance to be vaccinated.

Here’s a snippet from a feature on the issue by Luke Henriques-Gomes.

David Moody’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. And everyone had the same problem.

“We started to get calls saying, ‘When are these guys showing up’?” says Moody, who was until June the chief executive of a peak body for national disability insurance scheme providers. “It’s fair to say that was the cry from providers for the next three months after. ‘When are they coming?’ It was clear something wasn’t working.”

It was the middle of March, a few months after the federal government promised the 27,000 people with disability who live in shared accommodation they would be at the front of the vaccine queue.

You can read the full story here:

I thought this piece from Rafqa Touma was really strong. It brings home the human side of all the Covid-19 figures we get thrown at us every day.

Thank you Matilda Boseley (for everything apart from the lousy bird suggestion).

With that, I will hand you over to the fantastic Nino Bucci who will be with you for the rest of the day.

Have fun guys, see you bright and early tomorrow. Vote for the pelican!

The other contender for New South Wales’s new premier, planning minister Rob Stokes, is speaking now, and despite most already taking Dominic Perrottet’s promotion as a given, he says he will still fight it out.

Bafflingly he is wearing a bright yellow shirt with red lining. That felt important to note.

There are always challenging times in politics. The biggest challenge for us is to be committed to focus on the people of New South Wales, after all that is what we are elected to do. We have a vote tomorrow, that is a great democratic tradition and I am putting my name forward.

Reporter:

Stokes:

That is up to my colleagues. Ultimately the only way we are going to know who the next premier of New South Wales will be is by testing that in a representative democracy by a vote of the members who, together with the National party, represent the majority of citizens of New South Wales.