The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging people to keep wearing masks and social distancing even if they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. With the alarming spread of the Delta variant, it is crucial that community transmission is limited as much as possible. As WHO Senior Advisor Bruce Aylward said, “once you’ve been fully vaccinated continue to play it safe because you could end up as part of a transmission chain.”
The short fallings of Australia’s vaccine rollout are becoming more and more obvious, as new data shows we are ranked dead-last amongst OECD countries. With less than 5% of the population vaccinated, Australia is one of the developed world’s worst performers. Currently, vaccination rates are being led by Israel, Chile, and Iceland, who have 60%, 54%, and 52% respectively of their population fully vaccinated. Despite their large size, even the US has over 45% of their population fully vaccinated. New Zealand, with 7.9% of the population fully vaccinated, is second last.
The West Hoxton party acted as a superspreader event, with 24 people from the party of over 30 attendees testing positive for COVID-19. But this party has also shown the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. None of the 24 people who tested positive were vaccinated. By comparison, the 6 fully vaccinated health workers and partially vaccinated aged care worker at the party have come out unscathed – not one has tested positive.
Sydney has been plunged into lockdown again, as health authorities try to stop the growing outbreak caused by the Delta variant of COVID-19. However, an expert from the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, Dr Amesh Adalja, has warned that Australia’s elimination/eradication strategy is not sustainable. “You have to remember that Covid-19 is not going to go anywhere.” Instead, Dr Adalja says that Australia needs to ramp up its vaccination program to make sure high-risk individuals are protected so the disease becomes more manageable.
Sleep is essential for our health, however many of us leave our sleep problems untreated leading to physical and mental health problems. According to the Centre for Disease Control, 34.1% of children, 74.6% of high school students, and 32.5% of adults fail to get sufficient sleep on a regular basis.
Sleep plays a very important role for our brain health and biological repair. Unfortunately, the quality of our sleep tends to decline as we get older which can accelerate the aging process.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian described the situation in NSW yesterday as the “scariest period” for the state since the pandemic started. 49 locally acquired cases have arisen in less than 10 days. The Delta variant has radically changed how we think about close contacts of concern. Whilst at the beginning of the pandemic, we would have defined 15 minutes of close contact concerning, we are now seeing it can be as little as 5-10 seconds.
The TGA is currently working with Philips on its global recall action for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), Bi-Level Positive Airway Pressure (Bi-Level PAP) devices and mechanical ventilators due to risks posed by the polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) sound abatement foam component in these devices. Read more to find the links, hotline, and information Philips and the TGA have provided for patients and users.
The national vaccine rollout plan, released yesterday afternoon, has revealed that AstraZeneca vaccine doses will be phased out by October. By this stage, it is expected most Australians over the age of 60 will be vaccinated. From October, AstraZeneca doses will be replaced with up to 2.3 million Pfizer doses per week around the country, as well as up to 614,000 Moderna doses. The AstraZeneca vaccine will be available by request.
