https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p333
"Australia needs to “learn the lessons” of the latest covid wave, which lasted
longer than expected and had “a very profound impact on the community, on the
hospital system, on the aged care system, and on the thousands of families who
are grieving the loss of their loved ones,” Australia’s Minister for Health and
Aged Care Mark Butler has said.
Butler reported that around three to four million Australians, out of a total
population of nearly 26 million, were infected during the most recent wave,
which began in late October 2022 and is thought to be nearing its end.
“It is my intention to make sure that we learn the lessons of the past few
months and constantly make sure that the response that all governments,
including the Commonwealth, put in place to deal with what inevitably will be
the next wave of covid sometime over the course of 2023 is aligned with the
best understanding and the best evidence,” he said.
Australia has had 11.33 million covid cases and 19 063 deaths from the
infection, most of these since the end of 2021, and cases are likely to be
underreported.
The minister’s comments are in stark contrast to previous comments by
government officials in recent months, including Australia’s chief medical
officer Paul Kelly, who in September 2022 said it was time for “covid
exceptionalism” to end.
Most mandatory non-pharmaceutical measures in Australia—such as mask wearing on
public transport and mandatory isolation periods for people with covid-195—were
removed by mid-October 2022. Travel restrictions into Australia were lifted in
March 2022."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: February 16, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-78762468
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
