WA will ease travel restrictions in remote communities
Western Australia will join the Northern Territory in lifting travel restrictions across remote Indigenous communities today.
These communities have been quarantined from the rest of the states since 18 March in order to shield them from Covid-19.
The federal government says the decision has the full support of the Western Australia land councils and Aboriginal community-controlled health services in the state.
“The Government will continue to monitor the situation in Western Australia in partnership with the Western Australian Government, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation,” a spokesperson for federal health minister Greg Hunt.
“In the event of an outbreak of COVID-19, the Australian Government will work with the Western Australian Government to move rapidly and take all necessary steps to continue to safeguard the health of remote communities.”
There are a number of Black Lives Matter rallies planned for the capital cities over the weekend, protesting the deaths of Indigenous people in custody in Australia and the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in the US.
The NSW government is allowing the Sydney rally to go ahead, a decision which has drawn criticism from the opposition.
“Is [Gladys Berejiklian] really giving her approval for a mass rally with potentially thousands of participants, when the maximum number of people allowed to visit a private home remains just five,” Labor leader Jodi McKay told The Daily Telegraph on Friday.
In Victoria, premier Daniel Andrews has asked people to stay home but has said police have decided not to fine protesters for gathering en masse.
“Do you lock people up, do you inflame what is, I think, a pretty volatile situation given the depth of feeling on these issues?” Andrews said.
“Or … do you take a look and say it’s by no means ideal, but it’s certainly better than seeing that gathering on Saturday deteriorate into something like we’ve seen overseas.”
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Just staying on Covid-19 medication news, the Lancet has officially retracted a paper which caused the World Health Organization to halt trials of hydroxychloroquine.
A Guardian investigation had revealed errors in the data that was provided for the research by the US company Surgisphere. These were later explained by the company as some patients being wrongly allocated to Australia instead of Asia. But more anomalies were then picked up. A further investigation by my colleague Melissa Davey found that there were serious questions to be asked about the company itself.
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Ebola drug remdesivir wins backing as Covid-19 treatment
Good morning all, Matilda Boseley here to take you through the morning.
First up today, the antiviral drug remdesivir has been officially endorsed as a treatment for patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 infections.
The drug has been recommended by the National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, which brings together the country’s peak health groups.
Originally developed for the treatment of Ebola, it is the first medication to be recommended as a possible treatment for patients hospitalised after contracting coronavirus.
“This is the first information we have that a drug has a beneficial effect as a treatment for Covid-19,” said the taskforce’s executive director, Assoc Prof Julian Elliott.
“The preliminary data published so far from two clinical trials indicate that it can reduce the time for someone to recover from Covid-19. However, we do not yet have definitive information that remdesivir will reduce the risk of dying from the disease.”
Elliott said the taskforce had reviewed evidence to speed up the development of the recommendation in less than two weeks.
Remdesivir is not licensed for use in Australia but the federal government has approved exemptions to some aspects of the Therapeutic Goods Act to allow the drug to be accessed in the context of clinical trials and for compassionate use.
The taskforce also said it understood there was a sufficient supply in Australia to meet expected demand.
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