Latest posts
In pictures: the first AstraZeneca vaccine vials produced in Australia
Over the past few months, photos of vaccine vials have become a regular occurrence on the blog (see the post below this one for an example).
Now, we have some photos of some of the first vaccine vials that were produced in Australia:
One of the first vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured at Sequiris/CSL in Melbourne
Some of the first doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine have started rolling off the production line at the Sequiris/CSL plant in Parkville in Melbourne this morning.
Some of the first vials of the locally-produced AstraZeneca vaccine.
The vaccine was granted provisional approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Tuesday.
The Pfizer vaccine, which will start being rolled out in Australia to high priority groups from next Monday, cannot be manufactured locally and has to be imported from overseas.
‘There’s no age limit’: AstraZeneca boss confident vaccine is safe for over-65s
By Mary Ward
The president of AstraZeneca Australia has said she is confident the company’s coronavirus vaccine is safe for over-65s, after it was provisionally approved by the TGA for all adults on Tuesday.
“[The TGA has] concluded that it’s safe and effective to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to all adults over the ages of 18 years, so there’s no age limit,” local AstraZeneca boss Liz Chatwin told ABC News Breakfast.
“While we have still more data to come, as you know, this is a global pandemic and we’re collecting data all the time, we have seen strong immune responses in all people aged over 65, and also 100 per cent of people in this age group exhibit antibodies.”
Tick of approval: The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been cleared for use in Australia.Credit:AP
In its approval on Tuesday, the TGA said the vaccine was approved for all adults, but doses for over 65s would be given on a case by case basis, as occurs with all medical treatment.
Head of the TGA Professor John Skerritt on Tuesday said the organisation “recommended” older people should get the vaccine.
“To probably reassure people in this age group, tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been given to people around the world and many of those have been aged 65,” Ms Chatwin said.
Ms Chatwin said the first of Australia’s 3.8 million imported doses of the vaccine would arrive in time for vaccinations to begin early next month.
“We’re not sure exactly which state it will land in but certainly will be here in time to start vaccinating from early March.“
Australia also has an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine at CSL’s facility in Melbourne, the first of which are expected to be made available later that month.
Ms Chatwin added that people would begin to experience an immune response three weeks after the first of their two AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which have been recommended to be given at 12 weeks apart.
“After three weeks there’s 100 per cent protection ... against severe disease, hospitalisations and death, and that protection lasts until the second dose is given 12 weeks later.”
Premier’s office won’t confirm Wednesday restriction ease
By David Estcourt
Yesterday Premier Daniel Andrews refused to ruled out extending Victoria’s “circuit-breaker” lockdown, saying it is too early to make a call about relaxing restrictions.
Victoria’s Holiday Inn coronavirus cluster grew to 17 cases as another woman tested positive after attending a family function with an infected hotel quarantine worker.
The woman, whose three-year-old child also contracted the virus at the family function on Sydney Road in Coburg on February 6, is considered to be “case 17″ in the Holiday Inn cluster.
“She is asymptomatic and she was swabbed four times over the 13th and 14th variably returning both negative and weak positive results,” Mr Andrews said of the woman.
“Given her exposure and the variability of those results, the public health team has taken the most conservative approach and have deemed her a positive case.”
WorkSafe issued improvement notices to Victoria’s health department over Melbourne Airport virus protocols
By Richard Baker
WorkSafe Victoria has issued improvement notices to Victoria’s then-Department of Health and Human Services and COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria (CVC) in relation to their virus protocols at Melbourne Airport.
A government source with knowledge of WorkSafe’s action told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald the notices were issued in late January, about a week before what is known as the Holiday Inn Melbourne airport cluster emerged when a family of three returned positive test results for the UK strain of the virus.
The improvement notices had been issued before Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared the state’s hotel quarantine arrangements were “gold standard” and more stringent than other states.
WorkSafe issued an improvement notice to the health department over its handling of infection control at Melbourne Airport.Credit:Jason South
The Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn cluster grew to 19 people on Tuesday. It prompted Mr Andrews to last Friday place the entire state under a five-day hard lockdown, which he described as a “circuit breaker” to halt the spread of the virus into the community.
Mr Andrews is due to announce later today whether the lockdown will end or be eased as planned at 11:59pm on Wednesday evening.
While it is unclear what caused WorkSafe to issue the improvement notices to the health department and CQV, officials from both agencies were given written instructions on what needed to be fixed and by when.
The next step up from an improvement notice from WorkSafe is a prohibition notice. Had one of these been served on the health department and CQV in relation to their protocols at Melbourne Airport, it would have likely shut down a crucial part of Victoria’s hotel quarantine arrangements.
Avalon Airport in talks with state government to establish cabin-style remote quarantine program
By David Estcourt
Avalon Airport executives are in talks with the state government to establish a series of self-contained cabins on the airport’s land to assist with hotel quarantine arrangements.
Avalon Airport chief executive Justin Giddings said the cabins would be designed so that frontline workers, several of whom have caught COVID-19 in the course of their work, would not have to enter the facilities while residents were present.
“The cabins would be all self-contained so they would have in their cooking amenities, they would have a toilet in their washing facilities, even cleaning facilities,” Mr Giddings told Radio National.
Avalon chief executive Justin Giddings airside at Avalon Airport in Melbourne back in 2013.Credit:Mal Fairclough
“They could do everything inside - the whole purpose would be that the workers or the facility would not have to go inside with them at all.“
Mr Giddings said he thought it would take around two months to establish about 50 cabins on the land, which Avalon Airport leases from the federal government, and which the state government would have to pay for.
“If the state wants to control the whole thing and pay for the whole thing then that’s fine by us as well so we’re simply offering the site, offering the opportunity to do it you know area which is 10 kilometres from any other residential communities.“
Mr Giddings said the plan was an attempt to have the airport become active again after nine months of few local flights and no international arrivals.
No new COVID-19 cases raise hopes New Zealand will end lockdown
For a second consecutive day, New Zealand reported no new community cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, raising hopes that a lockdown in Auckland will be lifted Wednesday.
Just how three family members contracted the disease remains a mystery. After the cases were found, top lawmakers hurriedly placed New Zealand’s largest city into a three-day lockdown.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the final decision by lawmakers on whether to lift the restrictions will depend on any new information or cases that crop up over the next 24 hours.
Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins, pictured with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, announced the new cases on Sunday.Credit:Getty Images
“A day when we get zero positive test results is always a good day,” Mr Hipkins said.
The outbreak began when an Auckland mother, father and daughter caught the disease. The mother works at a catering company that does laundry for airlines, and officials have been investigating whether there is any link to infected passengers.
AP
Melbourne Airport warns of ‘significant work’ for quarantine facility
By Aisha Dow, Melissa Cunningham and Michael Fowler
A custom-built quarantine camp looks likely to be built near one of Melbourne’s airports, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying there was a “compelling argument” for the facility.
He said the hub would be modelled on the Howard Springs site in the Northern Territory, and revealed senior officials were well advanced in planning, which will include investigating parcels of land near Melbourne and Avalon airports.
Avalon Airport, operated by Linfox, owned by billionaire Lindsay Fox – a friend and occasional confidant of Mr Andrews – seems the more likely of the sites with a Melbourne Airport spokeswoman saying “significant work” would be needed to build a facility at Tullamarine.
The remote Howard Springs quarantine facility outside Darwin is highly rated.Credit:Louise Radcliffe-Smith
Mr Andrews said on Tuesday the state government was considering options for a purpose-built accommodation hub outside the CBD to replace or to run in tandem with hotel quarantine.
“It’s more than just scoping it, we are going to get on and build a facility,” Mr Andrews said.
France’s coronavirus death toll down sharply week-on-week
France reported 586 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, a sharp fall from 724 last Tuesday while the seven-day moving average of deaths fell to 381, the first time the average was below 400 since late January.
The 586 deaths included 351 deaths in hospitals, from 412 on Monday, and 351 deaths in retirement homes over the past four days.
Hospitalisation numbers eased again, with the total number of people in hospital with COVID-19 down by 283 to 26,239 and the number of people in intensive care down by 33 to 3,348.
The number of new confirmed virus infection cases rose by 19,590 to 3.49 million, compared to an increase of 18,870 a week ago. The seven-day moving average of new cases increased to over 18,400.
The ministry also reported that a total of 3.16 million vaccination shots have been administered, including more than 815,000 second injections.
Reuters
Shut down Victoria’s ‘risky’ hotel quarantine, infectious diseases expert says
By Aisha Dow, Melissa Cunningham and Michael Fowler
An expert witness to Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry has called for the state’s rebooted quarantine program to be shut down, saying it can no longer be trusted to protect travellers, staff and the public following a string of infection control breaches.
“It’s sad to say this as a Victorian, but Victoria’s approach to quarantine appears to be placing the rest of the country at risk,” said Professor Lindsay Grayson, one of Australia’s leading infectious diseases experts. “It should be removed from the national quarantine program until proven safe.”
Victoria’s latest outbreak is centred on the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.Credit:Penny Stephens
Professor Grayson was called upon last year by the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry to give expert advice on infectious diseases and infection control but is now concerned the necessary standards have not been introduced.
“Why is it that there have been no breaches in those facilities that have been run by hospitals, versus what we’ve seen at [the Melbourne Airport] Holiday Inn?” he said.
Experts including Professor Grayson and the Australian Medical Association are calling for national quarantine standards to be established.
NSW will be able to vaccinate all quarantine workers within three weeks
By Rachel Clun
NSW quarantine and essential border workers will all be vaccinated against the coronavirus within three weeks, with the state set to receive more than 14,000 doses a week of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Australia’s vaccine rollout begins around the country next Monday after the first delivery of 142,000 Pfizer vaccines landed in Sydney earlier this week.
The states and territories will receive 50,000 of those doses, which will be divided on a proportional basis, taking into account the number of hotel quarantine workers, essential healthcare staff and aged care workers and residents in each jurisdiction.
Hotel quarantine workers and border staff will be the first to be vaccinated.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
NSW has 6500 people working in the quarantine system each week and the state will get weekly deliveries of 14,000 doses, according to a senior government source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The government source said the doses would be enough to cover the first dose for all quarantine and border workers within two to three weeks.
Victoria will receive 11,000 to 12,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as the state prepares to end its “circuit breaker” lockdown.
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2021-02-16 19:54:00Z
52781378589448
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus updates LIVE: WorkSafe issued Victoria’s health department an improvement notice in January over Melbourne Airport virus control measures; Victoria enters fifth day of ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment