Health News at Your Fingertips

From Sunday, Tasmania will remove the medium risk COVID-19 designation applying to ten areas in Greater Sydney.

The move to lift the restrictions means the entire country can now travel to Tasmania.

Authorities say the decision has been made based on the absence of community cases in the past fortnight along with extensive contact tracing and testing undertaken by NSW Health authorities.

Experts have called the news of the Novovax vaccine showing 90% efficacy “mixed”.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, Head of the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW, pointed out that the vaccine had a relatively low efficacy rate when it specifically came to the South African variant:

Worryingly, in South Africa, where the B1351 variant was dominant, it was only 60% effective, and as low as 49% when HIV infected people were included in the analysis.

This means we urgently need to know the efficacy of other vaccines in the Australian plan, such as Astra Zeneca and Pfizer, against these variants, and plan accordingly.

They all target the same protein, so we can expect reduced efficacy to variant strains with these vaccines. These are likely to become the dominant strains globally and are more contagious, and the B117 appears to be more severe

The Victorian government has transitioned the last red zone in NSW to an orange zone, allowing anyone from NSW with a permit to enter Victoria.

From 6pm tonight, the Cumberland LGA will become an orange zone, opening travel up.

Previous orange zones of of Blacktown City, Burwood, Canada Bay City, Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield City, Inner West, Parramatta City and Strathfield Municipality and Liverpool will also transition to green zones.

Wollongong and the Blue Mountains will also move to green, leaving Cumberland as the only remaining orange zone.

In a statement, premier Daniel Andrews said he was “extremely happy” to see NSW continue to record low numbers of positive cases:

We’re extremely happy to see the last red zone in New South Wales be downgraded. We’re reminding people to get tested if they’re returning from an orange zone, so we can continue to enjoy an open and Covid-safe summer.

Finally, the premier had one small swipe at people who have questioned or will outright not take the vaccine:

I would ask that people look at the facts.

It is just horrendous the number of people who have died from Covid around the world, the number of people whose lives have changed forever.

It particularly has a detrimental impact on older Australians but people of any age group would feel an adverse impact and we have seen many people succumb and develop lifelong conditions, so I would say to everybody who has an alternative view, please look at the facts.

It is serious and please accept the health advice provided because that will save lives.

On vaccines, Berejiklian stressed there is a preliminary plan, not a concrete one, and that NSW will work with the federal government on the rollout:

We are still waiting for the federal government to come back to us on their plans by the deputy premier and either set on the crisis cabinet committee which looks after these Covid issues and we have already discussed getting the vaccine out to remote and regional communities.

Nothing is final and it will depend a lot on the advice the federal government gives us as to what is NSW’s share in terms of the vaccine but also, the categories of people who will be receiving at first and clearly people working on the front line with the virus and those most vulnerable will be in the queue first.

The premier has hit out at Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (again), this time saying Palaszczuk shouldn’t be complaining about the impacts of the pandemic on certain industries, in light of her previous border decisions:

She is now the victim of a policy that she put in place herself.

The whole point that New South Wales has been so strong in keeping borders open within Australia is to prevent exactly what the Queensland premier is now complaining about. When you unnecessarily close state borders you lose jobs, you create hardship, you impact people’s mental health and wellbeing.

There is no reason why certain leaders moved too quickly and shut out New South Wales. There is nowhere in the state that is a hot spot and even if there was, why should people from other parts of the state be prevented from moving freely?

And now, finally, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is speaking, saying there are no more hotspots in NSW.

She’s said, as the school year starts, that she is confident that the state is better equipped to deal with the pandemic moving forward:

Every day of the pandemic is a risk and we are always exposed. That is why New South Wales continues to adjust our settings. We continue to get the best advice possible and move forward and as a government we have been very flexible and adaptable. As the viruses changed we have moved. Last year was a very disruptive school year and we did not understand as much about the viruses we do now.

Some of the research we did on the virus young people in particular is some of the best research done anywhere in the world so we can move forward with confidence with schooling this year, confident that there will be less disruption and confident that we know much more than we did one year ago.

The Novavax vaccine has shown in its latest trials to be 90% effective against the coronavirus, including the more virulent UK and South African variants.

Australia has agreements to secure 51 million doses of the vaccine during 2021, but it will need to be approved by the TGA. Currently, only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved in Australia.

According to the federal health department, if the vaccine is proven effective, it could be available in Australia by “the first half of 2021”.

And now, finally, arguably the greatest athlete of all time, Serena Williams, is now speaking as well on the time she’s spent outside qurantine:

Yes, and I’m so glad the quarantine is over, because to be in a room with a three year old and being her best friend is definitely difficult especially after training and working out and then it’s like, oh my gosh, it never end.

So yeah. I was coming towards the end of my quarantine towards the end, but honestly I wouldn’t trade anything spending hours with her on hours on hours, it was really fun.

Will she be gunning to break the record of 24 grand slams?

I definitely think so because otherwise they don’t know how they would continue to go. It’s good to always have goals that you try to reach and kind of see what happens.

Next up, current world number one, Novak Djokovic is up, discussing what he’s been doing in Adelaide since his quarantine ended:

It’s great to be here, and I think again as everybody else, police and health department officials were making this day as best as possible. Conditions were great for us, considering the circumstances.

What did he do as soon as he was out of quarantine?

Walk in the park. Just putting their feet on the ground, you know, just doing something that I didn’t have a chance to do. Just having the space, I think, that’s what we all kind of missed.

Will he catch the greatest of all time (Federer, we must agree, surely) on 20 grand slams?

It’s probably the biggest challenge you can have, but it’s a very long ride and I’ve played professional tennis for so many years and I’ve been very blessed to have great success over the years, so why try to focus my attention on what I have so far achieved and I am grateful for that.