What's That Rash?

There's been a lot of talk over the last several weeks about how the coronavirus variants in Melbourne and Sydney is transmitting in more "fleeting" contact than we've previously seen. The outbreak in Sydney is the Delta variant and Melbourne's main outbreak was Kappa - and in both cities politicians or health officials say they're seeing people infected in very short periods of time. So is the vi...

The national vaccine rollout has suffered another setback, with the federal government now saying that only people over 60 years should get the AstraZeneca vaccine. It's likely to set the date to full vaccination back even further as Pfizer vaccine supplies are limited and it'll be months before Novavax and Moderna vaccines arrive. It's also left many wondering what they should do if they've had t...

NSW Health authorities are dealing with a new COVID-19 outbreak that appears to have slipped through our borders via a driver who transports international flight crew. And late on Tuesday, NSW Health said two people staying in a quarantine hotel may have been infected from people staying in a room next door. Further south in Melbourne, contact tracers are also trying to work out how many people in...

The clinical trial results are in for another coronavirus vaccine, this one made by the company Novavax, and at first glance they look really good. We say first glance because the results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and are from the company's press release. They show the shot is very effective against COVID-19 and also shows promise for some of the more concerning varia...

We know that vaccination is the fastest way out of this pandemic, and the sooner we can get the jab the sooner we're protected. But according to modelling from the Burnet Institute, even with high levels of vaccination, it might be a while yet before we can say goodbye to restrictions and other impositions on our lives. That's partly because of unknowns like how variants will continue to evolve, a...

There are lots of words that are used to describe the Delta coronavirus variant: highly contagious, very infectious, fast moving. But maybe it's time to add the word successful. The Delta variant has now overtaken the homegrown Alpha variant in the UK as the most dominant strain, and numbers are rising in the United States as well. So on today's Coronacast, we look ahead as to what the rise of Del...

It sounds like a lovely holiday: a week or two in Melbourne, see the sights before travelling north to the picturesque sandy beaches of Jervis Bay. Well, it's nice if you're a person. If it's the coronavirus variant of concern known as Delta, it's not not really a getaway you want to be part of. According to Victorian health authorities, the Delta cluster they're battling has been traced back to a...

As the days count down to Thursday, the question on everyone's mind is: will Victoria come out of lockdown or do they need a bit longer? Every day, health authorities say they're taking it one day at a time as more and more information is gathered. So what does it mean that Victoria has posted 11 new cases yesterday, when it was low single figures the day before? Thankfully, all the cases have bee...

Over the last few days in Victoria, there have been low numbers of new COVID cases - but every new case is not the same. Recently, many of them are people already in quarantine, which shows that contact tracers have successfully found and isolated people before they can infect more people in the community. But others, like two cases to be announced today, are slightly more problematic: they're ano...

The situation in Victoria improved slightly yesterday, with only a few cases and all being linked to people already in quarantine. Residents of Melbourne and health authorities will be hoping that the worst is behind them, and it'll be smooth sailing from here. But as we know by now, you should never underestimate a virus that'll exploit every weakness it can. So on today's Coronacast, is the vari...

The initial seven day lockdown in Melbourne has not been enough to get control of the outbreak in the city. As a result, Melbournians will need to do at least another seven days to give health authorities more time. They've also revealed that the plan is to get the state back to zero spread - or eradication of community spread. So on today's Coronacast, what'll they have to do to get there? Also o...

Health authorities in Victoria sounded slightly more upbeat yesterday, thanks to no new cases being posted from the aged care sector. But worryingly, there are still mystery cases to sort out and what's even more concerning is said to be acting differently than it has with previous outbreaks. Authorities have described the behaviour as "fleeting", saying it is showing remarkable ability to infect...

The second wave in Victoria in 2020 revealed aged care to be a major vulnerability in Australia's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Of the many hundreds of deaths from the second wave, the majority were in private aged care homes. And, sadly, COVID-19 has once again made it back into aged care - with coronavirus currently in two facilities in Melbourne. So on today's Coronacast, wasn't aged ca...

As Melbourne entered its third day of lockdown, the news came that many were dreading: coronavirus had made it back into an aged care facility and it was a mystery case. The health care worker and roughly 70 percent of residents had been vaccinated with their first shot. It came as senior Federal Government ministers insisted that the vaccine rollout is not a race, saying it needs to be systematic...

Victoria is back where it least wanted to be: in lockdown. And this time it'll last for seven days. Perhaps a bit lost among the debate over vaccinations and contact tracing is the fact that an entire state is in lockdown because of another failure of hotel quarantine. A recent pre-print study on Australia's hotel quarantine system has found that for every 172 COVID positive returned travellers, t...

It often takes a crisis to expose all the weak points in a system, and this week's coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne has done just that. The whole thing started with yet another breach of hotel quarantine. Then there's the slowness of the vaccine rollout, which has left millions of eligible people exposed. Add to that the state issues of lacklustre QR code usage, and a testing system that is groan...

What started with just four coronavirus cases in Melbourne a few days ago has now more than doubled, as close contacts are tracked down, isolated and tested. While cases are being linked to each other, how they relate back to a hotel quarantine breach in South Australia is still unclear. The other big challenge facing health authorities will be making sure every case is tracked down, but that's a...

Several cases of community transmission of coronavirus have been detected in Melbourne, as authorities rush to identify exposure sites and close contacts. While we brace for more cases, much is still unknown, such as where the virus came, its genomic information and how many missing links there might be. Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says it's a concern as we head into the winter mo...

The so-called Indian coronavirus variant B617 is on a mission to take over the world, and it appears that it's slowly achieving that goal. According to recent data from the UK, it's edging out the local version B117 to become the dominant variant. So what does this all mean? Well, it means that it's probably more infectious and that might be what is giving it the edge. But is it more deadly or mor...

Congratulations, you're eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine! Since you're over 50, that means you're going to be offered AstraZeneca. But as many Australians are asking, why aren't you being given a choice? How worried should you be about these blood clots we keep hearing about? Are you being treated as a second-class citizen? And if there's no COVID-19 in Australia and the borders are still closed...

When we asked for your advertising campaign ideas to get Australia vaccinated, we never expected such an amazing response. Coronacast listeners from across Australia and the world have written in with very clever ideas to try and convince the nation to go out and get vaccinated. Ideas include using messages of hope from Australian celebrities to scaring the pants off people by asking them if they'...

While it's great to see that the number of Australians vaccinated against COVID-19 rises by the day, it's still far from the numbers needed to get it done by the end of the year. So perhaps a national advertising campaign selling the benefits, or maybe pointing out what could happen if we're not vaccinated is needed. Other countries have tried campaigns so far, including Singapore and New Zealand...

When you're scheduled in for your COVID vaccine, depending on your age you'll get two doses of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer. But what if you had one brand, and for your secord shot you had the other? Well, researchers have been looking at this for a whole bunch of reasons - a main one being it makes rolling out the vaccines simpler. And on today's Coronacast, early results suggest that mixing bran...

The transition from Australia being pretty much free of COVID to reopening the border and allowing it in, is a complicated and fraught issue. The country will eventually have to rejoin the world so people can see family, travel for pleasure or business and go overseas again - but according to experts, there's a list of things that have to happen before then. The most obvious is a very high level o...

The coronavirus variant sweeping through India appears to be a stronger more contagious version than we've previously seen. While there is still little peer-reviewed scientific information on B.1.617 variants, health authorities are increasingly becoming worried about the threats the strains present. Australia has had two close calls with 617 over the past few weeks: firstly in Sydney then again i...