CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s health, economic and overseas response to coronavirus will come under renewed pressure when federal bureaucrats face a week of grillings from senators. With the Morrison government under pressure on multiple fronts including aged care and the sluggish vaccination rollout, May 31 will kick off four days of budget estimates. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck will appear alongside Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy and Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly. The Therapeutic Goods Administration is also due to answer questions about vaccines after Australia signed a deal for 25 million doses of Moderna, which is yet to receive…
Author: zenger.news
PERTH, Australia — A crew member from a ship docked at Western Australia’s Fremantle Port has been placed in hotel quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus. The man in his 20s was placed into Perth hotel quarantine on May 30 after fronting up at the Fiona Stanley Hospital, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says. “He came off Sunday because he was unwell with symptoms that apparently weren’t Covid related,” he told reporters on May 31. McGowan said the man then returned to the Kwinana Bulk Terminal where his ship, the Allegra, was docked and waiting to sail to Malaysia. “He was then found to…
SYDNEY — The Covid-19 pandemic could have deadly consequences for bowel cancer patients. Research has found that without catch-up screening, a six-month disruption in preventative procedures will lead to an additional 1961 deaths in Australia. The research by Bowel Cancer Australia and published in the medical journal the Lancet, highlighted the impact the pandemic has had on diagnosing Australia’s second deadliest cancer. Delays in getting through colonoscopy waitlists have been further compounded by the pandemic. The Cancer Australia report showed between January and September last year, the number of colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies performed to diagnose bowel cancers fell by 15 percent,…
SYDNEY — The Morrison government is under renewed pressure over its aged care coronavirus response after dropping a rule to ensure staff does not work across multiple sites. Victoria is on tenterhooks with 11 new cases of coronavirus including nursing home residents and staff, stoking fears lockdown may continue beyond seven days. It emerged on May 30 the federal government scrapped a requirement for aged care workers to only work at one facility in November last year. Despite Victoria’s concerning outbreak, the rule wasn’t reinstated until the Commonwealth designated Melbourne as a coronavirus hotspot on May 31. The Royal Freemasons aged…
SYDNEY — House prices continued to surge across the nation in May, with values up by more than one percent in every capital city. The CoreLogic home value index rose 2.2 percent in May, just shy of the 2.8 percent pace recorded in March — a 32-year-high. Hobart saw the biggest increase, with values growing by 3.2 percent as an average home is now worth AU$574,543 ($444,521). Sydney came in a close second with a 3 percent surge taking the median house value in the city to AU$970,355 ($750,923). A general view of residential properties in Melbourne. (James Ross/AAP Image)As per…
MELBOURNE, Australia — A return to the so-called “ring of steel” separating Melbourne and regional Victoria is not off the table if the state’s lockdown drags out beyond seven days. Acting Premier James Merlino warned the outbreak could get worse before it gets better, as three of 11 new cases reported on May 31 were linked to a Melbourne aged care home. Merlino added it was too early to tell if the statewide lockdown would be extended beyond 11.59 pm on June 3, saying the next few days would be critical. None of Victoria’s 60 active cases reside in the regions, although several of the state’s…
RANDWICK, Australia — A clinical trial conducted by a Sydney hospital could change the way premature babies born with a common heart condition are treated. The peer-reviewed trial involved giving the babies paracetamol. The heart problem, patent ductus arteriosus, is a medical condition in which extra blood flows to the baby’s lungs at birth, making it difficult to breathe. It affects half of those infants born at less than 29 weeks. The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. (Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image)The trial involved 58 babies aged between 23 and 28 weeks being given paracetamol for five days every six hours from the day…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian gig workers, freelancers and people in precarious jobs in aged care or tertiary education are missing out in new workplace laws because there’s no official definition of insecure work. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is proud there are more people in work than before the pandemic began, but the vulnerability of gig and casual workers remains hidden, a parliamentary committee heard on June 1. “People are coming to this committee and telling us they are the working poor,” Labor senator Deb O’Neill said. “That they don’t know how they’re going to put food on the table, that they…
BRISBANE, Australia — World champion kayaker, Nathan Baggaley, was “actively involved” in a bungled cocaine-smuggling plot his younger brother helped plan, a Brisbane judge has found. The brothers were found guilty by a jury of one count of attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine in April but are yet to be sentenced. Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Ann Lyons heard submissions earlier this month on the men’s role, and degree of involvement in the importation attempt before Dru Baggaley headed 360 kilometers out to sea on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat in July 2018. Dru Baggaley argued he should be sentenced on the basis…
CANBERRA, Australia — A bid to overturn Health Minister Greg Hunt’s ban on Australians traveling overseas has been dismissed by the Full Court of the Federal Court. Lobby group LibertyWorks had argued the restriction imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic was invalid and unduly impinged on individual rights. Apart from the recent opening of the New Zealand travel bubble, people seeking to travel overseas have since March 2020 had to get a special exemption from the Department of Home Affairs. The think-tank challenged the ban after one of its employees could not get an exemption to travel in late 2020. The court dismissed a challenge from lobby…