Health News at Your Fingertips

Dr Danielle McMullen is addressing NSW AMA’s concerns with the reopening plan in NSW.

She says the AMA’s greatest concern was the “scope and breadth” of changes before the existing roadmap was implemented.

Some of the announcements were a bit premature to change. We really were quite confident in the original roadmap that it was a steady and stable way out of lockdown. We certainly don’t want to see a situation where NSW is two steps forward, one step back. And we need a bit of steadiness along the way to be able to pause and reflect with each

reopening and see what happens with COVID cases, what happens with our strain on the hospital systems, so the changes yesterday were certainly broader and sooner than we would have liked to see.

NSW AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen has been on ABC Afternoon Briefing, speaking about the Federal Government vaccine advisory body’s recommendation that severely immuno-compromised people should get their third vaccination dose.

She says it shows ATAGI has prioritised vulnerable in society.

The third dose will give them that added protection they need like the rest of us have with our usual immune systems to get out and about in the community and be protected by the vaccination.

Booster shots for the rest of the population is a trickier question. So far the international data overall is still quite reassuring that even six or eight months out the reduced risk of hospitalisation following vaccinations is still very strong. The vaccinations are still good at keeping us out of hospital, keeping us out of intensive care and that’s really what we are aiming for with these vaccines. It’s likely that there will be some booster doses but we don’t have a time frame on that yet.

Another truck driver has tested positive in SA, health authorities have confirmed.

The man earlier tested negative in NSW.

South Australia is currently under Level 1 Covid-19 restrictions.

The Victorian LGA of greater Shepparton is still waiting for clarity on whether it will come out of lockdown from midnight tonight.

There were 13 cases reported in greater Shepparton today, including seven cases still under investigation.

At the press conference today, chief health officer Brett Sutton said vaccination rates would become increasingly important to determining whether targeted lockdowns in regional areas were necessary.

Almost 70% of eligible Queenslanders have received their first vaccination dose.

NSW police officers, supermarket employees and takeaway food workers have made hundreds of compensation claims after contracting Covid-19 at work, the insurance regulator has revealed.

The State Insurance Regulatory Authority says there have been 1,593 Covid-19 claims since the first coronavirus outbreak in Australia in early 2020 and 1 October, AAP reports.

There were only 395 claims before 15 June but by the time the Delta variant had spread through the country there were 1,198 extra claims.

Of these claims, 1,165 included a confirmed diagnosis. One in eight of the claims were psychological.

Victoria police has released a statement regarding Andrews’ infringement notices:

Victoria police can confirm it has issued two infringement notices to premier Daniel Andrews for breaching chief health officer directions.

Premier Andrews received two fines today (8 October) for not wearing a mask, each to the value of $200.

These incidents occurred on Wednesday 6 October and Thursday 7 October outside Parliament House.

Former Victorian police commissioner Graham Ashton has been appointed to lead the independent review of the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, tasked with reviewing the state’s emergency call system following several deaths.

Ashton will review Esta’s current functions and make recommendations to the government on how to improve its capabilities by early next year.

Esta provides Victoria’s 24-hour emergency call taking and dispatch services for ambulance, fire, police and the Victoria State Emergency Service. In 2020/21 it answered one call every 11 seconds.

Esta chief executive Marty Smyth said “unprecedented” numbers of ambulance calls had been made in recent weeks, at levels previously only seen on busy weekends.

The average wait time is currently one or two minutes, well above the authority’s target of five seconds for ambulance calls.

Symth:

Our hardworking emergency call takers have done their absolute best throughout unprecedented demand from the pandemic – but we want to see where things can be improved. Mr Ashton has expert knowledge of how our emergency services should operate, and I look forward to seeing his recommendations on how we can continue to support our emergency services agencies to keep Victorians safe.

Opposition spokesman for emergency services Brad Battin said the government had failed to prepare for the increase in Covid-19 cases in Victoria:

A failure to plan is a plan to fail, and due to the Andrews Labor government’s failure to prepare triple zero, people are dying. We don’t need an investigation at this time, Victorians need a guarantee their calls will be answered when they need emergency assistance.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott made quite a speech at the Yushan Forum today, calling Australia to stand with Taiwan against the threat of China.

Down in SA, a stranded dolphin has drawn a crowd of onlookers in Adelaide.

The dolphin got stuck in the River Torrens this morning, and has been putting on quite a show.