Australia reports record deaths from Covid-19

Australia reported a record high of Covid19 deaths Tuesday and its secondlargest state declared an emergency in hospitals to cope with surging patient admissions and a staffing shortage due to the coronavirusThe 74 deaths occurred in its three most populous states New South Wales reported 36 Victoria reported 22 and Queensland 16 The previous daily record was 59 coronavirusrelated deaths on Sept 4 2020 Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there were signs that New South Walesrsquo infection rate was peaking and Victoria was near a plateauThe New South Wales government has ruled out a return to lockdown to counter the highly contagious omicron variant In October Sydney ended a 108day lockdown because the population of Australiarsquos most populous city was largely vaccinatedAnother lockdown would have ldquosubstantial consequences for men and women right across the state in terms of being able to provide food on the table for their familyrdquo state Premier Domonic Perrottet told Australian Broadcasting Corp Victoria declared an emergency for hospitals in its state capital Melbourne and several regional hospitals from midday Wednesday because of staff shortages and a surge in patient admissions About 5000 staff are absent because they are either infected or close contactsUK PM lied ex aideBoris Johnsonrsquos former chief adviser Dominic Cummings has accused the British PM of lying to parliament that he thought a drinks party held in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown was workrelated Johnson told the House of Commons that he went to the party on May 20 2020 thinking it was a work event Cummings said in a blogpost that Johnson was told by two senior officials that it was not He was told it would break Covid19 rules but he still decided it should go aheadlsquoSome patients may be infectious even after 10 daysrsquoOne in ten people may still be infectious for SARSCoV2 the virus that causes Covid19 after the 10 day quarantine period according to a studyThe research published recently in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases used a newly adapted test which can detect whether the virus was potentially still active The test was applied to samples from 176 people in Exeter UK who had tested positive on standard PCR tests The team led by researchers at the University of Exeter found that 13 per cent of people still exhibited clinicallyrelevant levels of virus after 10 days meaning they could potentially still be infectious Some people retained these levels for up to 68 days the researchers foundHong Kong to cull 2000 animalsHong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will cull some 2000 small animals including hamsters after several of the rodents tested positive for the virus at a pet store where an infected employee was working The city will also stop sale of hamsters and import of small mammals said officials from Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department2669054No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours326279424Total no of cases worldwide5536609Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever