Health

COVID-19 Monday Roundup 14 December 2020

The last fortnight has been all about vaccines with the UK, US and Canada all commencing roll-out of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine after emergency use authorisation in all three countries. Research in the University of Queensland’s vaccine has been halted after study participants registered false positive HIV results. In case numbers, globally numbers of new cases continue to break new records and death numbers also increasing. Australia, however, continues to do extremely well, registering no locally acquired cases for the first time since March!

by Kirsten Armstrong, Kirsty Hogan, Benita Pienaar, Alex Stitt, Gokul Chandrasekaran and Karen Cutter

Highlights

Covid-19 Blog

Coronavirus Waves

In this article, Brent Walker explores mutation and cellular entry of COVID-19 and what this might mean for future possible waves of the virus.

by Brent Walker

Covid-19 Blog

COVID-19 Monday Roundup 16 November 2020

While Victoria has now recorded 16 straight days of zero cases, South Australia is the only state to record locally acquired cases this week with what is suspected to have originated in a quarantine hotel. A big week with vaccine updates, Pfizer’s announced that its vaccine is 90% effective, Australia has started manufacturing Oxford’s vaccine candidate in Melbourne due for release in first half of 2021 if approved, and Russia announced that its vaccine is 92% effective. Australia has released its vaccination strategy – it will be highly encouraged but not mandatory. And in terms of the local economy, business confidence has surged further, driven by easing restrictions in Victoria.

by Kirsten Armstrong, Alex Stitt, Kirsty Hogan, Benita Pienaar, Gokul Chandrasekaran and Karen Cutter

Covid-19 Blog

Update on Mortality in Australia

The ABS has released the weekly mortality statistics up to 28 July in Australia (for doctor-certified deaths only, excluding coroner-referred deaths). We’ve analysed this to update our previous analysis up to 30 June.

by Jennifer Lang, Richard Lyon and Karen Cutter

Covid-19 Blog