Health News at Your Fingertips

The chief minister of the Northern Territory, Michael Gunner, has just made a fairly remarkable admission: that for the past week the territory has failed to contact people who visited exposure sites. Gunner said:

Yesterday we were requesting an update on the exposure site messaging and the process. We were advised over the past week, these messages have not been sent.

There is no excuse for this. There was a clear decision and a clear direction by the security and emergency management committee. This direction was not implemented, which is unacceptable.

The person responsible for tasking this decision has been stood down from the emergency operations centre and will return to regular duties.

Gunner said the issue was rectified overnight, and that people would start to receive messages.

The SA chief health officer, Nicola Spurrier, says the state maintains its own definition of close contacts, despite changes announced in some other states. As an example, she mentions there are only five people in the state who can do railroad signalling, and so it would be dangerous if they all caught Omicron.

The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, is still talking in Adelaide. He says he wishes the state had reached 90% double dose already (they should reach it in the next couple days) and were heading to 95%.

This is a fairly unusual story: Queensland police are searching for a missing police dog (of the type they would in fact use to search for someone who was missing). Here’s the AAP report:

A missing Queensland police dog may have been taken in by a member of the public and a reward is on offer for information leading to his safe return.

Police dog Quizz was helping track down an offender who allegedly ran from a stolen car at Redbank Plains, southwest of Brisbane, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

He got separated from his handler during the pursuit and is still missing, despite an exhaustive search involving all terrain vehicles, trail bikes and drones.

PD Quizz is a three-year-old Sable German Shepherd with a black and tan hide. He was wearing a black tracking harness with a long tracking lead.

Inspector Mick Thiesfield said there had been an unconfirmed sighting of the dog on Tuesday morning, and he could be stuck in nearby bushland.

“The police dog could be snagged on some sort of tree … as he moves around the bush,” he said on Friday.

But given there have been minimal sightings over several days, Inspector Thiesfield said it is “probable” a member of the public may have taken in PD Quizz.

There have been cases in the past where a police dog has gone missing and later been found with people in the community, he said.

“If the dog is in the possession of someone unlawfully, and as a result of that information we locate the dog, there is a reward,” Inspector Thiesfield said.

“Everyone’s still putting in as much effort into trying to find him and hopefully that’s what we’ll do.”

PD Quizz is not considered dangerous but should not be approached.

Anyone who sees him should contact police.

The modelling suggests, among other things, that SA would have hit 30,000 cases a day if it had not delayed (and staggered) the resumption of the school year. Queensland has made a similar call.

“The information we have received is very compelling,” Marshall says.

There’s been some modelling released in SA too:

Back on Marshall in SA. He says there’s three new RAT collection sites to open between now and Tuesday.

He also says there are 557 SA health staff who are Covid positive, with 870 either infected or furloughed because of the virus.

There are reports that police are planning to evict people from a sovereign citizen camp at Old Parliament House today. Police made arrests earlier this week after some of these protestors allegedly tried to force their way into new Parliament House.

Marshall says that 246 hospitalisations is an increase, but the number of patients in ICU has dropped to 20 from 27 earlier in the week.

Marshall says he does not have any more detail on the deaths, and says the case number is a little higher because many testing sites were closed for hot weather yesterday. And 1,747 results today are from rapid antigen tests. RAT results only started being included yesterday.

He says he’s very pleased to be out of isolation. I didn’t know he was in isolation, but that’s good for him.

I think we missed this fairly significant news out of WA, which dropped late yesterday.

The state is about to become unvaccinated people’s worst nightmare. They will be banned from pretty much everywhere, with the restrictions to last “years”, according to premier Mark McGowan.

The AAP story is here:

Unvaccinated West Australians will be banned from entering bottleshops or dining at fast-food restaurants as the state prepares to open its borders.

Premier Mark McGowan says the restrictions will come into effect from January 31 ahead of the February 5 border transition.

Proof of double-dose vaccination will be required at all hospitality venues, including restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars and fast-food outlets for dine-in customers.

It will also be needed for visitors to public and private hospitals and aged care facilities, indoor entertainment venues including play centres, casinos and cinemas, gyms and fitness centres, the zoo, Crown casino and amusement parks.

The requirement will apply to anyone aged 16 and above and will be implemented across the state.

“Life will become very difficult for the unvaccinated from January 31,” the premier told reporters on Thursday.

“These will be the broadest proof of vaccination requirements in the nation and they will not be removed anytime soon.”

Mr McGowan said West Australians who chose to remain unvaccinated were putting themselves and others at risk and increasing the burden on the health system.

WA is set to scrap quarantine for fully-vaccinated arrivals from February 5 but the government is yet to outline how it will define close contacts of positive cases.

The Australian Republic Movement has launched an advertising campaign, only days after unveiling its preferred model for selecting a head of state.

The campaign features the tagline: “Thanks, we can take it from here.”

The model, released on Wednesday and named the Australian Choice, proposes that Australia’s parliaments nominate candidates for head of state who then would be put to a national ballot.

The head of state would be elected for a five-year term and be responsible for appointing as prime minister the person who has majority support in the House of Representatives, or calling an election if no one can obtain that support.

The head of state would have no individual authority in relation to the setting of government policy, day-to-day governance or passing of laws, which remains the responsibility of the parliament, prime minister and cabinet.

There’s been some reports circulating that indicate NSW police will not be fining Hillsong church for the singing and dancing that has been going on at a youth camp, possibly in breach of Covid restrictions.

But a NSW police spokesperson has just told me that’s not necessarily the case, as the force is still considering the matter.

Here’s our full story on the youth camp:

There’s been a small win for Novak Djokovic, who before yesterday was reportedly facing investigations for possible breaches of Covid regulations in three countries: Australia, Spain and Serbia. Apparently Spain are not investigating his travel to the country.

The often entertaining F3 derby in the A-League men between Newcastle and Central Coast has been postponed: