Health News at Your Fingertips

This could only end well!

The Bureau of Meteorology has listed a number of severe thunderstorm warnings across much of NSW as storm season arrives early in the state.

A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued west of the Great Dividing Range, with damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding possible into this evening across Enngonia, Walgett, Cobar, Bourke, Ivanhoe, Lightning Ridge and Brewarrina.

The trough wreaking the havoc will move across NSW, bringing showers and the potential for more severe thunderstorms to the east coast on Thursday and Friday, when the state’s storm season begins, AAP reports.

Showers will be widespread, but storms will be less common, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Hugh McDowell says:

“It’s not wall to wall storms. It’s going to be quite hit and miss. It’s not an Armageddon scenario. We’re going to get some severe thunderstorms.

“The long weekend … is looking drier with sunny skies and temperatures warming up as well. We’re likely to see temperatures on the east coast into the mid to high 20s and in the west, high 20s to perhaps the low 30s.

“With the weekend temperatures warming up, the air drying out, and sunny skies – we’re also seeing westerly winds – that is going to increase the fire dangers across parts of the north coast, mid north coast, northern rivers district.”

The Victorian government will not be providing comment after WorkSafe charged the state’s health department over its hotel quarantine system in 2020:

Victoria’s health department is facing more than $95 million in fines after it was charged over alleged hotel quarantine failures that led to the state’s deadly second wave of Covid-19.

After a 15-month investigation, WorkSafe today charged the Department of Health, formerly the Department of Health and Human Services, with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health Safety Act.

A filing hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court is set for 22 October.

A significant change for Victorians stuck in Sydney.

Tasmania’s premier Peter Gutwein has criticised NSW premier Glady’s Berejiklian’s plan to have no restrictions for residents once the state reaches 90% double-dose vaccination targets:

I was very concerned to see the NSW premier make a statement where by 90% she will, it appears, depart from the national plan and allow free access for all those in NSW whether vaccinated or not. That is a recipe for an acceleration of the spread of the virus.

A new report into veteran suicides has “reaffirmed” the need for the upcoming royal commission, AAP’s Callum Godde reports.

The fourth annual report on suicides among permanent, reserve and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members, released today, has expanded its scope to include those who served from 1985 onwards, more than doubling the ADF personnel under consideration to almost 373,500.

Previously, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report dataset was limited to those who served from 2001.

While the number of suicides among the current and former army, navy and air force community has grown by 808 since the 2020 report, the risk is not higher and trends remain largely unchanged.

The report comes after the federal government gave the green light to a royal commission into defence and veteran suicide, which is yet to begin formal hearings.

Commission chair Nick Kaldas said the statistics were “harrowing”:

Reports such as this from the AIHW help build a more complete picture of defence and veteran suicide and are critical as we prepare for public hearings.

Compared with the general Australian population, age-adjusted suicide rates from 2002 to 2019 were 51% lower for permanent ADF servicemen and 48% lower for reserve servicemen.

However, the trend swings once members leave, with the suicide rate 24% higher for ex-serving men and 102% higher for ex-serving women.

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More national vaccination data, this time from Australia’s favourite teenage coders. NSW and the ACT had the highest increases in vaccinations across 12- to 39-year-olds in the past week.

Some 77.28% of Australians aged 16 and over have now had at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and 53.42% are fully vaccinated. But there is significant disparity between states.

Many thanks to Donna Lu for keeping the blog nice and toasty. I will be with you for the rest of the afternoon.

With that I will hand the reins over to Caitlin Cassidy, who will masterfully guide you through the rest of the afternoon.