Health News at Your Fingertips

In England, scientists have warned there could be “tens of thousands” of avoidable deaths unless the whole country is immediately put under lockdown.

The calls come in the same week that the number of patients in hospital with Covid in England surpassed the peak in the first wave, with 20,426 people in hospital with the disease on the 28 December, and numbers expected to rise further as cases climb.

On Tuesday, coronavirus cases reached a new record high, with 53,135 cases reported in the UK and 47,164 cases in England. The seven-day average rate for London as a whole to the 24 December was 807.6 per 100,000 population, twice that of the rate for England, while Thurrock, in Essex, had more than 1,300 cases per 100,000 population for the same period.

My colleague Nicola Davis has this report, which features some startling interactive graphics mapping cases around the UK.

Police have issued nine further penalty infringement notices related to a wedding that breached Sydney’s coronavirus gathering restrictions.

There have now been 21 $1,000 fines issued to attendees at the Pyrmont wedding, after police were called to a venue on Pirrama Road at about 5pm on Sunday.

Police learned about the wedding via a tip-off made to Crime Stoppers.

After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are northern beaches residents.

Police issued 12 PINs on Monday to attendees who are northern beaches residents.

Following further inquiries, another nine guests were identified as northern beaches residents and were spoken to by police before $1,000 PINs were issued either in person or by post.

These include three men – aged 31, 41 and 75 – and two women – aged 42 and 71 – from Narraweena, a 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Collaroy Plateau, and a 36-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Frenchs Forest.

Inquiries are continuing.

An interactive website has been launched that maps every venue alert across New South Wales and the associated action authorities are requesting visitors comply with.

https://covid19nearme.com.au/

Norman Swan’s Coronacast podcast is taking a holiday at the moment, but the ABC doctor is still tweeting his wisdom.

Gladys Berejiklian will provide a coronavirus update at 11am this morning.

The NSW premier will be joined by her chief health officer, Kerry Chant.

I’ll bring you live updates from that press conference here.

For the latest on New South Wales’ coronavirus cases, here’s my colleague Melissa Davey’s story:

The new year’s Test match will go ahead as planned at the SCG after Cricket Australia deemed it safe to play in Sydney.

The federal government has said it is considering granting “alternate entry” to Australians returning from overseas if they can prove they have already been vaccinated for the virus, AAP reports.

“The Australian government is considering mechanisms for recognising an international immunisation certificate for Covid-19 and potential alternate entry and quarantine arrangements for returning Australians who may have been vaccinated if it is safe to do so,” a health department spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald in a report published on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night NSW Health issued alerts for multiple new venues including two churches in Wollongong.

Anyone who visited the St Nektarios Greek Orthodox church on Sunday 27 December between 9am and 10.15am, and the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox church on Sunday 27 December between 10.30am and 11am must get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive further advice from NSW Health.

Authorities had previously warned places of worship were a high-risk venue for transmission as the virus can spread from singing indoors.

Alerts were also issued for several shops in Figtree, a suburb of Wollongong.

All venue alerts can be found here:

There were reports of long queues at testing centres in Wollongong – the city about 70km south of Sydney – on Tuesday after Gladys Berejiklian revealed authorities were racing to understand how a resident of the city contracted coronavirus without having visited northern beaches, the centre of Sydney’s cluster.

Australia has experienced the biggest expansion of casual employment in the country’s history, according to new analysis that suggests the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been “starkly unequal”.

My colleague Daniel Hurst has the story here:

Interestingly, the Australia Institute analysis also found that about one in three Australians want to continue minimising how much they travel for work, according to its survey into which Covid-19 related behaviours Australians hope to retain post-pandemic.

Retaining less work travel, which in turn means less traffic and pollution, was the top answer, selected by 35% of the 1,018 respondents.

Retaining increased funding for mental health and family violence services was selected by 33% of respondents, and keeping working from home arrangements, selected by 32% of respondents.

Normalising not going to work when sick was chosen by 28% of respondents, and lower population growth (due to restricted immigration) was selected by 26% of respondents.

The least popular option was to keep the gas led-recovery, selected by only 6%.

Ben Oquist, executive director of the Australia Institute, said:

Tellingly, last on Australians’ wish-list for the new year is the Government’s much-vaunted ‘gas led recovery’ which only 6% of Australians selected as something they’d like to keep from 2020.

Good morning, and welcome to the Australia news live blog for 30 December. I’m Elias Visontay. Here’s what’s making news this morning.

-The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has foreshadowed further tweaks to restrictions as “the [coronavirus] threat of greater Sydney is almost becoming as equal to parts of the northern beaches”. Health authorities in her state are urgently trying to understand how a Wollongong resident contracted Covid-19 despite not having visited the northern beaches – the centre of Sydney’s cluster.

-Berejiklian will announce that at least three new locally acquired cases outside of the northern beaches – including the Wollongong case – were detected in the 24-hour period to 8pm on Tuesday, when she provides her Covid-19 daily update, expected at 11am.

-Australia has experienced the biggest expansion of casual employment in the country’s history, according to new analysis that suggests the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been “starkly unequal”.

-The SCG will host the third cricket Test against India after Cricket Australia deemed it safe to play in Sydney.

–Anthony Albanese is putting Labor on an election footing for 2021, with a new push to rally the party’s grassroots members for the forthcoming federal campaign.

–Victorians are being urged not to venture into Melbourne’s CBD to celebrate New Year’s Eve unless they have a booking.

If you want to get in touch, please send me an email to elias.visontay@theguardian.com or get in touch via Twitter @eliasvisontay.