Health News at Your Fingertips

Guardian reporter Eleanor Ainge Roy writes that the former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark has been told a vaccine for Covid-19 may be years away;

This isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I am told by informed sources in Geneva that it will be at least two-and-a-half years until there could be a widely available vaccine – at least. That’s not very encouraging really.

I’ve made it clear in accepting it that it will be virtual for the foreseeable future – which could be quite a long time.”

Clark sat down with WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva in mid-February. She said he felt “helpless” to stop the pandemic.

I think when we replay the record, most of the world sort of sat by and watched with almost a sense of detachment and bemusement. China was locking down Wuhan and Beijing and thinking back to January and early February it was kind of like that’s happening over there. Dr Tedros said to me, ‘There is a very narrow window to avoid a pandemic – but it’s closing fast’. And he said ‘I don’t know what else I can do – I am screaming every day but no one is listening’. That really chills me … this is the health nuclear accident.”

My colleague Christopher Knaus has written about how Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest used his Chinese connections to help secure a remarkable quantity of diagnostic equipment for Australia.

But problems soon emerged, Knaus writes;

The tests were to be used by public health units, who would use them throughout 2020. The tests and associated platforms would also be deployed in 11 private pathology laboratories.

The uptake, certainly among public health pathology, was patchy at best.

Watching on in shock was the rest of Australia’s diagnostics industry.

Not long before the announcement, Pathology Technology Australia, the peak body, handed the government an audit of Australia’s existing testing technology to conduct the kind of nucleic acid testing used for Covid-19 detection.

“We had determined there was more than enough technology already in the field to significantly ramp up testing,” Dean Whiting, the PTA chief executive, said.

The introduction of BGI tests brought in a new technology mid-pandemic, without any real sense of how it would fit into Australia’s existing laboratory structures.

Experts warned the busiest pathology providers simply would not be able to use the devices.

Read more about the saga here:

The premier of Victoria, Australia, Daniel Andrews, will hold a press conference at 11am AEST as the state grapples a second-wave of Covid-19.

A record new 288 new cases were reported in the state on Friday – the single highest daily rise in any Australian jurisdiction since the pandemic began. Andrews warned that those numbers were likely to increase in the coming days. They are particularly concerning given all were acquired in the community, rather than being cases in travellers returned from overseas.

Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration [TGA], has granted provisional approval for the drug remdesivir to be used as the first treatment option for Covid-19. It has received provisional approval for use in adults and adolescent patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms in hospital.

“Remdesivir is the most promising treatment option so far to reduce hospitalisation time for those suffering from severe coronavirus infections,” the TGA said. “Remdesivir offers the potential to reduce the strain on Australia’s health care system. By reducing recovery times patients will be able to leave hospital earlier, freeing beds for those in need. Remdesivir will not be available to Australians unless they are severely unwell, requiring oxygen or high level support to breathe, and in hospital care.”

While this is a major milestone in Australia’s struggle against the pandemic, it is important to emphasise that the product has not been shown to prevent coronavirus infection or relieve milder cases of infection.

Australia is the one of the first regulators to authorise the use of remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19, following on from recent approvals in European Union, Japan, and Singapore.

Provisional approval, which is limited to a maximum of six years, was made on the basis of preliminary clinical data, as there is the potential for substantial benefit to Australian patients. The manufacturer of the drug, pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd, may apply for full registration when additional clinical data — required by the TGA to confirm the safety and efficacy of the medicine – are available.

There are now 47 people in hospital in Victoria, including 12 in intensive care as the state announced a record 288 new cases Friday. The vast majority of those cases have now been locally acquired.

By comparison, New South Wales reported just 14 new cases on Friday, with 12 of those in returned travellers now in hotel quarantine. A newly diagnosed man was at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula while he may have been infected, authorities say. It’s concerning because another recently confirmed New South Wales case — a woman from South Western Sydney — also visited the Crossroads Hotel on the same day, 3 July, though the two people aren’t known to each other.

The Hotel has been closed for deep cleaning while contacts are traced.

New South Wales chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is urging anyone who visited the Crossroads Hotel on the evening of 3 July to self-isolate, monitor for symptoms and come forward for testing should they develop even the mildest of symptoms.

Meanwhile, another newly confirmed New South Wales case is in a traveller from Victoria. The man drove from Melbourne and entered the state on 7 July, and has reported minimal contact with anyone in New South Wales apart from his partner and two friends. The man subsequently tested positive and is in hotel isolation and the three contacts are in quarantine. His partner has tested negative.

Chant urged the community to be extra vigilant at this critical point following the closure of the Victorian/ New South Wales border on Wednesday. The border will remain shut for at least six weeks as part of an effort to stop the virus spreading to other states.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the latest Covid-19 news from around the world. Here is a summary of the latest events over the last 24 hours or so;

• The majority of Victorians are waking up this morning to their first weekend back in lockdown, which came into effect on Thursday. Bordering states — especially New South Wales – are on high alert after the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced a record new 288 cases on Friday – the single highest daily rise in any state since the pandemic began. He warned those numbers would increase in the coming days.
• By comparison, New South Wales reported 14 new cases on Friday, with 12 of those in returned travellers now in hotel quarantine. The state remains on high alert following the closure of the New South Wales/ Victoria border last week. They don’t want spread into the state, after a traveller from Victoria entered New South Wales on 7 July, and subsequently tested positive. He is now in hotel isolation.
• Australians will now have to cover the costs of their own two-week compulsory hotel quarantine if they return from overseas. The national cabinet decided to cap the number of incoming flights allowed in Australia. The change means at least 4,000 fewer Australians will return home each week.
• One of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the US has created a humanitarian crisis at San Quentin state prison, where almost 1,500 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and seven have died. Guardian reporter Abené Clayton has written about the crisis here, and California has announced a plan to release up to 8,000 people from the state’s prisons.
• Serbia announced a record Covid-19 death toll for a single day on Friday, with prime minister Ana Brnabic saying the Balkan state recorded 18 fatalities and 386 new cases over 24 hours in what she described as a “dramatic increase.
• France has become the sixth country to report a death toll of more than 30,000.
• The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total rising by 228,102 in 24 hours.

Melissa Davey here with you in Melbourne, Victoria, to take you through the morning from lockdown. The suburb I live in was one of the “hotspot suburbs” identified by the state government on 30 June, so I’m among a few hundred thousand Victorians who have had a head-start in this latest lockdown.

Share your lockdown tips [please don’t suggest bread-baking] and let me know if I miss anything over on Twitter or email melissa.davey@theguardian.com