Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to devotees to keep a key Hindu festival “symbolic” as the country reported more than 200,000 new COVID-19 infections for the third straight day. Criticism has mounted over the Indian government’s handling of the health crisis, as religious festivals and election rallies continue amid increasing reports of shortages of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders …

NSW has recorded no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases after three family members diagnosed with COVID-19 in hotel quarantine picked up the virus from fellow returned travellers. Authorities raised concerns over the weekend that there may be the possibility of community transmission. In good news, NSW Health has confirmed there were no new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm …

Resetting Australia’s troubled COVID-19 vaccine rollout will be the focus of a National Cabinet meeting today, as the nation’s leaders gather to urgently get the program back on track. The federal government has blamed the sluggish rollout on vaccine supply issues overseas, with GPs complaining they have received as few as 40 doses to distribute a week. Some doctors say …

The federal government has asked the nation’s medical and vaccine regulators to urgently look into findings from the European Medicines Agency of a possible link between AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine and rare blood-clotting issues. Following the EMA’s findings, Britain’s vaccine advisory board has said all people under 30 will be offered alternative vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna. “The government has asked [the …

Health authorities are racing to identify the source of infection of a security guard who has tested positive for coronavirus. The positive case breaks NSW’s 55-day streak of no locally acquired coronavirus cases. The 47-year-old works mostly weekends at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney’s CBD and the Mantra Sydney Central hotel in Haymarket. Under the state’s routine surveillance of quarantine …

Nearly 160,000 people have now had a COVID-19 vaccination, including the Prime Minister who received his second Pfizer dose on Sunday. However, the figure is well below what the federal government had hoped to achieve, with a target of inoculating 4 million people initially set for early April. Scott Morrison has blamed international supply issues but is hopeful vaccination rates …

Australia’s top nurse is putting the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility’s capacity under the microscope, as the nation’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gets underway. Freshly vaccinated chief nursing officer Alison McMillan is travelling to the Top End to see whether more people can quarantine at the hub. “She is looking at the maximum safe capacity for expansion of Howard Springs,” Health …

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have been vaccinated against the coronavirus as UK hospitalisations reached a record high and infections passed three million. Doctors have warned that pressure on the health system could get worse in coming weeks amid criticism that the current lockdown measures are not strict enough. As the nation’s horror death toll passed 80,000, medics warned …

The UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK — following the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The British Government has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, enough to vaccinate 50 million people. Other countries will be watching …

The final report from the inquiry into Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine program has been unable to determine who commissioned the use of private security and has slammed the Andrews Government for failing to do “proper analysis” of the plan. The COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry report, which was tabled to Parliament on Monday, found Victoria’s second wave was triggered by transmission of the …