Category: Australia
Australia: Victoria shuts border to Perth, hundreds in #coronavirus isolation
Victoria, Australia has closed its border to Perth residents after a passenger infected with coronavirus landed at Melbourne Airport. The man caught the virus at a quarantine hotel in Perth after being in China and then flew to Melbourne without knowing he was a carrier.
On Friday night the case plunged Perth into a three-day lockdown after it was revealed the man had moved around the city for four days. The man who arrived is Victoria’s first community case of COVID-19 in eight weeks. All 257 passengers aboard the April 21 flight QF778 have been ordered to get tested and to isolate for 14 days.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
Australia: First fatal case of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia is likely to be linked to AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccination
The TGA’s Vaccine Safety Investigation Group (VSIG) met late today and concluded that a recently reported case of thrombosis (blood clots in the arteries and veins) with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) is likely to be linked to vaccination. VSIG reviewed a report about a 48-year-old woman who was vaccinated in New South Wales and admitted to hospital with an extensive thromboembolic event and thrombocytopenia (TTS) four days after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine. Sadly, this person Genene Norris died in hospital and we extend our sincerest condolences to her family.
RIP Genene Norris
Image by Monika Häfliger from Pixabay
Australia: 48yr old NSW woman dies after developing blood clots following Covid-19 vaccination
Australian Federal health authorities are investigating the death of a 48-year-old New South Wales woman who developed blood clots after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. If it is confirmed the woman contracted blood clots linked to a COVID-19 vaccine, it would be the third such case in Australia since the rollout began.
See also: Australia: second likely AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccine blood clot case
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
Australia: second likely AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccine blood clot case
The second case of rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been detected in a woman vaccinated in Western Australia. The Therapeutic Goods Administration said the woman in her 40s is in hospital in a stable condition, receiving treatment.
“The Vaccine Safety Investigation Group (VSIG), a panel of expert advisers to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) met yesterday evening and has concluded that a recently reported case of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia is likely to be linked to vaccination,” the TGA said in a safety alert.
This is the second Australian case of “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia following the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine”.
Image by Patty Jansen from Pixabay
Australia: Pfizer is now the preferred #coronavirus vaccine for people aged under 50
Pfizer is now the preferred vaccine for people aged under 50, Australia’s medical experts have decided after a lengthy meeting to discuss a rare but serious blood clotting side effect linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The government is now reviewing Australia’s vaccine portfolio as the entire rollout will require an overhaul, throwing the timeline of the country’s vaccination program into doubt. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the advice was not a prohibition on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people aged under 50.
Image by Patty Jansen from Pixabay
More than 700,000 AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccine doses secretly flown to Australia from Britain
Hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been flown from the United Kingdom to Australia but the source of the shipments was kept quiet to avoid any controversy in coronavirus-ravaged Britain.
The first 300,000 UK-made doses landed at Sydney Airport on February 28 – one month after the European Commission introduced new curbs limiting the export of vaccines produced on the Continent. Another large batch arrived on an Emirates passenger plane in March, well after Italy and the European Commission formally blocked an application by AstraZeneca to ship 250,000 doses to Australia.
Australia reports first case of blood clots following AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccination
Australia’s medical authorities are monitoring the first reported case of a rare clotting disorder following a COVID-19 jab.
A 44-year-old man was admitted to Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs on Friday for blood clots. The man was vaccinated around March 22 and, so far, no direct link has been discovered between his condition and his vaccination. To date more than 420,000 people have received AstraZeneca vaccinations in Australia.
Image by Paul Macallan from Pixabay
New #coronavirus variant B.1.525 with #E484K, #Q677H, #F888L and a similar deletions to #B117
International lineage with variants of biological significance E484K, Q677H, F888L and a similar suite of deletions to B.1.1.7.
Countries reported 2
Countries with sequences 10
Sequence count 102
Countries: Denmark 35, United Kingdom 32, Nigeria 12, United States of America 7, France 5, Ghana 4, Australia 2, Canada 2, Jordan 2, Spain 1
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
Australian quarantine hotel #coronavirus cluster rises to 20, linked to use of nebuliser by guest
Returned traveller blamed for Melbourne virus outbreak feels ‘like a criminal’ after being allowed to use nebuliser in quarantine hotel
The man had not tested positive to coronavirus when he used the nebuliser at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport.
Image by CarynB1968 from Pixabay
Genomic Evidence of In-Flight Transmission of #SARSCoV2 Despite Predeparture Testing
Evidence of in-flight transmission on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to New Zealand is strongly supported by the epidemiologic data, in-flight seating plan, symptom onset dates, and genomic data for this group of travelers who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (passengers A–G). Among the 7 passengers, 2 (A and B) were probably index case-patients infected before the flight, 4 (C, D, E, and F) were probably infected during the flight, and the remaining passenger (G) was probably infected while in MIQ. All 7 passengers were seated in aisle seats within 2 rows of where the presumed index case-patient(s) were seated.
Combined, these data present a likely scenario of >4 SARS-CoV-2 transmission events during a long-haul flight from Dubai to Auckland. These transmission events occurred despite reported in-flight use of masks and gloves. Further transmission between travel companions then occurred after the flight, in an MIQ facility.
These conclusions are supported by genome sequencing, an in-flight seating plan, and dates of disease onset. These data do not definitively exclude an alternative exposure event, such as virus transmission at the Dubai airport before boarding (e.g., during check-in or in boarding queues). However, the close proximity of the relevant passengers on board suggests that in-flight transmission is plausible.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/3/20-4714_article
B.1.1.7 #Coronavirus #mutation also reported in Iceland, Denmark, Belgium, Australia, Italy & Netherlands
“The governments of Australia, Italy and the Netherlands say they detected cases of the new strain. It was identified in the Netherlands in early December.
A few cases of COVID-19 with the new variant have also been reported to the ECDC, Europe’s disease monitoring agency, by Iceland and Denmark. Media reports in Belgium say cases have also been detected there.”
60 million confirmed #coronavirus infections globally, and the rate is still increasing
There have now been more than 60,000,000 confirmed coronavirus infections globally and the infection rate is still increasing.
Australia reports rare case of Covid reinfection
Australian authorities say they’re treating a Covid-19 case in the city of Melbourne as a rare reinfection
The only coronavirus case reported in the former hot spot of Victoria state on Tuesday had also tested positive to COVID-19 in July
Australia covid quarantine error means hundreds asked to take HIV test
Almost 300 people who went through a scandal-hit hotel coronavirus quarantine system in Victoria, Australia, must be screened for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C due to fears of cross-contamination from the incorrect use of blood glucose test devices.
Photo by Tai’s Captures on Unsplash