Key Points
- A new ANU study shows one in 10 Australians has experienced long COVID
- WHO reports a 10 per cent decline in global COVID cases
- Moderna's bivalent vaccine is now available to Australians
- Western Sydney residents felt targeted and racially discriminated against during lockdowns: Report
The mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 has ended across Australian states and territories today (14 October).
The Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment has also ended except for casual workers in aged care, disability care, aboriginal healthcare and hospital care sectors.
NSW Health said COVID-19 positive workers in high-risk settings should only return to work after seven days and are symptom-free.
Reporting of RAT result is still mandatory in some states and territories.
A majority of COVID-19 rules have been scrapped except for wearing face masks in high-risk settings and mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers in the country.
A new study from The Australian National University shows that more than one in 10 Australians has had long COVID.
Lead author Professor Nicholas Biddle said that people who suffered multiple symptoms or had long COVID are likely to report a significant drop in their well-being.
Australians can now access Moderna's bivalent vaccine that targets the original COVID virus and Omicron's BA.1 subvariant.
However, a WHO expert group said the current data was insufficient for them to recommend any bivalent vaccine.
The Guardian reported that Australia discarded about 20 per cent of its COVID vaccine last month because of the low booster uptake.
However, it is still under the WHO's acceptable level of wastage for a multi-dose vaccine, which is between 15 and 40 per cent.
A report from the Australian Catholic University and the United Workers Union noted that residents of Sydney's most multicultural suburbs in Western Sydney felt targeted and racially discriminated against, compared to Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs during the pandemic lockdowns.
"Residents of Western Sydney and other LGAs of concern were forced to contend with tougher restrictions on physical mobility and night-time curfews than elsewhere in Sydney," the report said.
Western Australia has decided to scale down state-run vaccination clinics. However, vaccines are still available at participating GPs and pharmacies.
New modelling suggests South Australia's next wave to peak in early December. However, it is expected to be less severe than the previous ones.
The state is expected to have the highest number of hospitalisations around Christmas.
An found that the origin of COVID-19 was "most likely zoonotic, " meaning the virus jumped from animals to humans.
Furthermore, the task force didn't find "verifiable or credible evidence" that COVID-19 originated in a lab.
The number of new weekly global cases decreased by 10 per cent and deaths by one per cent for the week ending 9 October, the WHO said in its latest report.
Germany, China, France, the US and Italy reported the highest weekly global cases.
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