Key Points
- The Australian Capital Territory will lift the requirement of reporting positive RAT results on 28 February
- Sydney Airport data shows domestic and international travels are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels
- WHO reports an 89 per cent decrease in global COVID cases in the past 28 days
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved Moderna's bivalent COVID-19 vaccine targeting the original Omicron variant and BA.4/BA.5 variants.
However, the vaccine still requires approval from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) before it can be used as a booster in individuals aged 12 and over.
ATGAI has already approved Moderna's bivalent vaccine that targets the original Omicron variant and BA.1 variant.
Burnet Institute's chief executive Brendan Crabb told a parliamentary inquiry that messaging around long COVID needs to change.
Professor Crabb said people impacted by long COVID have felt abandoned by the government.
"This is a group who feel left out of the discussion. Australia's policy is largely based around acute COVID, with trying to protect the vulnerable," he said.
A new showed unvaccinated people face an eight-time higher risk of hospitalisation and a five-time higher risk of death than those with up-to-date vaccinations.
The latest data from Sydney Airport showed that domestic and international travels are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
A total of 3,120,000 air travellers passed through Sydney Airport in January 2023, which is about 79 per cent of air travellers that used the airport in January 2019.
The Australian Capital Territory will lift the requirement of reporting positive RAT results on 28 February.
The ACT is the only jurisdiction in the country requiring people to report their positive results.
From 1 March 2023, the ACT residents can collect free RATs from several locations, including state libraries (excluding Heritage Library) and Access Canberra service centres.
On Friday, NSW reported a slight increase in weekly cases. It recorded 6,545 COVID cases compared to 6,033 cases last week.
Victoria reported 3,052 new cases this week compared to 3,334 cases the previous week.
There was an 89 per cent decrease in global COVID cases and a 62 per cent decline in deaths in the past 28 days compared to the previous 28 days, the World Health Organization said in its latest report.
The US, Japan, China, Korea and Germany reported the highest COVID cases at the country level.
The WHO said new cases related to Omicron BA.5 and its descendent lineages are declining. They accounted for 35.3 per cent of all cases last week.
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