Scientists have produced evidence that the pandemic virus is 'uniquely adapted to infect humans', raising fresh questions over whether its origins were natural or could have occurred in a laboratory.
Where did the Coronavirus 19 Originate from? and anything relative to the virus.
Where did the Coronavirus 19 originate from? and anything relative to the virus.
Coronavirus is 'uniquely adapted to infect humans': Top vaccine scientist says it could only have come from an animal through a 'freak of nature' - and the possibility it leaked from Wuhan lab MUST be investigated
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But leading epidemiologists warn that the nation is facing another wave of COVID infections in November, as immunity from boosters begins to wane.
Professor Adrian Esterman, chair of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, says modelling completed by his team indicates case numbers will begin to rise again next month.
“The modelling has estimated another wave in November simply because of waning immunity, and it’s likely to happen nationwide,” he says.
“It’ll be a lower peak, but the problem at the moment is there are a number of subvariants – at least four that are more transmissible than BA.4,” Prof. Esterman said.
“That will create another wave. We have these new subvariants – BA4.6, BA.2.75, BQ.1 – all of these can escape our immune system better than BA.5.”
Australia recorded 31,636 new cases of Covid last week — marking a 2.2 per cent increase.
Health authorities reported 21 cases of the XBB variant in NSW in the week ending October 15, while cases in Victoria rose by 24.7 per cent to 8537 in the week ending October 28.
The state’s hospitalisation rate rose 20.3 per cent to 172 patients, with seven people on average dying with the virus each day.
COVID-19 cases among passengers on first major cruise ship back in WA after two yearsThe first major cruise liner to visit WA since the start of the pandemic has docked - and it’s brought a nasty surprise with it.
Passengers and crew on the first major cruise liner to visit Western Australia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have tested positive for the virus.
Health authorities and the ship’s operators, Carnival Australia, have not revealed how many cases are on board the Coral Princess but say they are being managed according to recently established protocols.
That includes the small number with the virus being isolated for five days.
The ship left Broome on Tuesday heading for Geraldton and was also due to dock at Fremantle, Busselton and Albany.
WA Health said it had been advised that some passengers and crew members had tested positive for COVID-19 but the operators were managing those cases on board.
“WA health has not been asked for assistance in managing the cases,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald said as a result of early detection and isolation measures, case numbers on board remained steady.
“These guests are being cared for in their staterooms by our medical and support staff,” she said in a statement.
“We are pleased to share that all cases on board have been mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic.”
A new immune-resistant and rapidly spreading Covid variant has reached Australia.
The XBB strain, which is said to be resistant to vaccines and antibodies from previous infections, emerged in Singapore weeks ago and is already spreading in Australia.
Some media reports have dubbed it the ‘nightmare variant’ after cases in Singapore doubled in a day.
“It is likely the most immune-evasive and poses problems for current monoclonal antibody-based treatments and prevention strategy,” Amesh Adalja, a public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Daily Beast.
However, people who are fully vaccinated are far less likely to become seriously ill if they contract XBB - and Pfizer and Moderna’s new “bivalent” vaccines are efective at fighting off the new strain.
The Courier Mail reported the strain went from making up one fifth of Australia’s Covid cases to more than a half in just one week.
A new wave of Covid-19 infections is looming in New South Wales, the state’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, will warn on Thursday, with transmission of the virus predicted to increase in coming weeks.
It follows Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, making a similar announcement last week, with Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and XBB tipped to overtake BA.5 as the dominant variants throughout Australia.
Chant is expected on Thursday to reiterate the importance of getting booster doses, and will again urge those most at risk of severe disease to plan ahead by talking to their doctor about the antivirals available to reduce the severity of infection.
Raymond Island couple Andrew and Terry MacGregor, 77 and 78, had all their shots as soon as they were eligible.
But their fourth dose was administered back in April, and they worry they are now vulnerable to the virus again.
"We're very nervous about COVID, we keep to ourselves and we've lost contact with a lot of old friends," Mr MacGregor said.
"We basically stay at home, we go shopping once a week, and we go shopping with N95 masks on."
In Australia, only adults with a severely compromised immune system are eligible for a fifth dose.
Professor Cunningham, the executive director of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, said the real number was likely to be higher.
"There's a slight increase in cases around Australia, remembering this is difficult to count because not everyone is reporting their RAT test positivity, and we know that hospitalisations go up later than cases," he said.
This week, students attending a high school in Sydney's north-west were forced to return home, after one-third of the school's teaching staff tested positive for COVID-19.
Recent studies had shown the app had a 92 per cent success rate in diagnosing the virus among symptomatic patients, but more clinical trials were needed for it to gain regulatory approval.
Dr Abeyratne said the smartphone technology, which was developed in consultation with medical practitioners, operates similarly to a doctor using a stethoscope to listen for sounds produced by a patient's body.
"The diagnosis comes immediately, within a minute or so, telling the patient whether they have a particular disease, using only their smartphone – nothing else – and there's no need for a network connection either," he said.