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Victorians have today entered a seven-day “circuit breaker” lockdown with just five reasons to leave the house shopping, work, exercise, care/caregiving, and vaccinations after health officials yesterday recorded 26 active COVID-19 cases and more than 120 exposure sites.
With officials warning of the new B.1.617 variant’s infectiousness, the ABC explains that around 14,000 close contacts have either been required to quarantine for 14 days, or test and isolate until negative, while one case on a ventilator is understood to have been moved out of intensive care last night.
From today Victorians aged 40 to 49 are also eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, a decision that led to an immediate crash in the state’s booking system.
Ethicists call for ‘soft’ mandatory vaccine policy for healthcare workers
Experts argue that health workers who choose not to get vaccinated should have their jobs modified.
Some healthcare workers are hesitant to get the COVID-19 jab. Image credit: Halfpoint Images/Getty Images
There are currently seven COVID-19 vaccines being administered globally, with demand outstripping supply. In most countries, priority is given to frontline healthcare workers: not only because they face heightened exposure risks, but because they could pass the virus on to their charges.
But not all healthcare workers are willing to be vaccinated, which presents national health systems with a confounding ethical problem – do they make vaccinations mandatory, imposing on the freedoms of their employees? Or do they keep them optional, and put patients’ lives at risk?
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As Victorians wait to see if the circuit breaker has worked, epidemiologists weigh in on the role of lockdowns
TueTuesday 16
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TueTuesday 16
FebFebruary 2021 at 9:18pm
Geelong s CBD has become a ghost town as the snap lockdown forces Victorians to stay at home.
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After a nervous few days, Victorian authorities say the state is on track for its snap circuit-breaker lockdown to end at midnight tonight.
The ABC understands senior ministers and the Premier are meeting this morning to discuss the situation.
That s partly because the sources of all 19 cases linked to the cluster emanating from the Holiday Inn near Melbourne Airport at the start of the month have been successfully traced.
Two major grants offer support for international mother-baby iron supplements study
A Melbourne-led research consortium investigating the impact of iron treatments on maternal and newborn health in low-income countries has received two major grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation worth almost $US 9.6 million.
The funding, awarded in 2020, will support major clinical trials in Malawi, South Asia, Africa and Bangladesh, investigating whether intravenous iron treatment given to women in pregnancy improves the physical and psychological health of mothers, and the growth and brain development of their babies. The study will also address whether intravenous iron supplements impact mother-baby bonding and breastfeeding rates.
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Credit: WEHI, Australia
A Melbourne-led research consortium investigating the impact of iron treatments on maternal and newborn health in low-income countries has received two major grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation worth almost $US 9.6 million.
The funding, awarded in 2020, will support major clinical trials in Malawi, South Asia, Africa and Bangladesh, investigating whether intravenous iron treatment given to women in pregnancy improves the physical and psychological health of mothers, and the growth and brain development of their babies. The study will also address whether intravenous iron supplements impact mother-baby bonding and breastfeeding rates.
The project is led by WEHI researcher Associate Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha, who also leads the Collaborating Centre for Anaemia Detection and Control at WEHI and is a haematologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. It also involves researchers from the University of Malawi College of Medicine, the Inter