Key Points
- States and territories will not share daily COVID numbers after Friday
- New weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to decline globally
- India and China authorise needle-free COVID-19 vaccines
On Thursday, Australia reported at least 84 COVID-19 deaths, including 25 in New South Wales, 24 in Victoria and 11 in Western Australia.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved TouchBio SARS-CoV-2 & FLU A/B Antigen Combo Test and Fanttest COVID-19/Influenza A&B Antigen Test Kit.
These nasal self-tests detect both COVID-19 and influenza viruses. They feature an additional line to indicate the presence of influenza A and B.
States and territories will not provide daily COVID reports and numbers after Friday.
Instead, they will be issuing a weekly report beginning 16 September. The decision was taken at the meeting of state and territory health ministers earlier this month.
India and China have approved needle-free options for COVID-19 vaccination.
India authorised nasal version of Bharat Biotech's vaccine for unvaccinated people, while Chinese regulators approved an inhaled version of CanSino Biologics's booster dose.
The number of new weekly COVID-19 cases dropped by 12 per cent and deaths by five per cent for the week ending 4 September, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in its latest report.
WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decline in deaths and new cases is encouraging but warned there was no guarantee that these trends would persist.
He said last week one person died with COVID-19 every 44 seconds.
Mr Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the downward trend for monkeypox infections continues in Europe, but cases are rising in some countries in the Americas.
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