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AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST CITY A Sydney will remain in lockdown for another month.
The New South Wales state government announced that the lockdown of the city of five million would last at least until 28 August, after reporting on 177 new infections today in the latest 24-hour period.
It was the largest daily tally since the cluster was discovered in mid-June.
“I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
More than 2,500 people have been infected in a cluster that began when a limousine driver tested positive on 16 June to the contagious Delta variant.
The driver had been infected by a US aircrew he transported from Sydney airport.
The death toll from the cluster reached 11 today with a woman in her 90s dying in a Sydney hospital.
Meanwhile, South Korea is reporting a new daily high for coronavirus cases a day after authorities enforced stringent restrictions in areas outside the Seoul capital region seeking to slow a nationwide spread of infections.
The 1,896 cases announced today took the country’s total for the pandemic to 193,427, with 2,083 deaths from Covid-19.
It was the highest daily jump since the pandemic began and surpassed a previous record of 1,842 announced last Thursday.
The Seoul area has been at the centre of the outbreak.
Yesterday, the government put much of the non-Seoul regions under the second highest distancing guidelines to guard against a nationwide viral spread.
In eastern China, drivers seeking to leave Jiangsu province will have to show a negative coronavirus test taken in the last 48 hours or be forced to turn around, as infections in the province continue to rise.
The provincial transport department said today that 93 checkpoints have been set up on roads in the province, whose capital of Nanjing is the epicentre of China’s latest outbreak.
Drivers must remain in their vehicles and wear masks while health workers carry out the checks.
The National Health Commission reported 48 new cases in Jiangsu over the previous 24 hours, bringing its total to 154 over recent days. Authorities say the illnesses are being caused by the highly contagious Delta variant.
The coronavirus continues to spread despite China having administered more than 1.5 billion doses of vaccine. While that amount exceeds the entire Chinese population of 1.4 billion, it is not clear how many have received one dose or both.
And in a major breakthrough for one of the world’s last countries to embrace Covid-19 vaccines, Tanzania’s president kicked off the nation’s vaccination campaign today by publicly receiving a jab and urging others to do the same.
The East African country’s government under former president John Magufuli had long worried African health officials by denying the pandemic.
Magufuli, who insisted the coronavirus could be defeated with prayer, died in March. The presidency went to his deputy, Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has since changed Tanzania’s course on Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says the number of coronavirus deaths jumped 21% globally in the last week.
Most of the 69,000 deaths were reported in the Americas and Southeast Asia.
The UN health agency also noted that Covid-19 cases rose by 8% worldwide and that there were now nearly 194 million infections.
WHO said that “if these trends continue, the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks”.
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Good old Micheal Martin hasn’t been heard from since he cancelled the leaving cert because it wouldn’t be safe ( not much social distancing in Salthill yesterday) now he wants to be popular again by opening up faster( we should) but he’s just an opportunistic tosser
@tom forde: Indeed, reading the public mood and finally speaking out. The government response has indeed been sub par throughout but we don’t need to wait for Michael Martin to tell us.
@tom forde: take back the word opportunistic
@tom forde: And what do you think Leo has been doing since St Patrick’s day?
FG are flying in the polls since this started and they are on tv/ radio all day every day electioneering.
FG control the media because they still hang onto the power. Martin is just being given a voice in case he becomes taoiseach in the next few weeks.
Our media is as corrupt as they come!
@tom forde: Cheers Tom. Any word off Simon Harris on the nursing homes in the meantime?
Media is funny still pretending FFG are not one ;-)
@Gary O CONNOR: exactly. Oh look see democracy is alive because tweedledum is debating with tweedledee.
@Peter McGlynn: better than having the other tweedle-know-nothing-about-anything-spend everyone else’s money-populists-DUMBS in charge
@Gary O CONNOR: of course they are not one party. Are DUP and sf the one now that they’re in power together. Are SDLP and SF the one because they have similar political policies
Typical SF simpleton Nonsense. Sound byte politics
@Ro-your-nan: Yeah, because FF have a superb track record in the economic competency field. Their last time running the country brought economic collapse, bankruptcy and the IMF.
@Ronaldo Blanc: that was due to multiple failures (including FF)- would have happened with any of the parties in place; would you concur with that?
@Nioe: SF and DUP are only in power together albeit begrudgingly due to the Good Friday Agreement. Both parties have very different ideologies so distinguishing between isn’t difficult. FG and FF on the other hand have more or less the same broken neoliberal ideology. All that differentiates them is history and personalities.
@Ro-your-nan: It was F.F. that led us into economic destruction..F.G. added to the mess .Imagine what they will do when United…Between them they have governed this state since it’s foundation…FFGs record concerning public finances not to be boasted about.
@Donal Desmond: Imagine If the Shinners, PBP, the soc dems or Labour were in power during that time And you think things are bad now
@Donal Desmond: I think you may have missed my point
@EFitz66: If there is a FG/FF alliance, the shinners will win the next election. FF are now on 15%!!
@Paul Kelly: The worst thing for either party is to go into government and especially needing the Greens to prop them up But someone has to form a government in what will be the second worst economic climate in the last 50 years and the shinners in the background telling everyone that when they get into power everything is going to be free for everyone and people will believe them.
What has this country come to.possibly 4 more years of FFG with 3 party leaders who are spoofers going from one crises to the next in government with their head buried in the sand just like the last few governments.no vision for the future.
@tuco: yes, agreed. Enough of us should have voted for the IRA army council and their little pupoet clones. We’d be well on the way to becoming Europe’s Venezuela by now, all poor together in the workers’ republic, waiting for the money tree to grow.
@John Mulligan: Spoof much, exaggerate much?
@tuco: of course FFG created coronavirus.
Could you imagine SF having to deal with this pandemic. Doesn’t bare thinking about.
@John Mulligan: You mean the magic money tree that Martin and Varadkar said didn’t exist and magically appeared. As for Europe’s Venezuela..F.F. who facilitated the gangsterism of the banks and developers facilitated by politicians and the Thatcherite policy inflicted by F.G./ so called Labour made sure we were the capitalist version of Venezuela.
@John Mulligan: Indeed…because Venezuela’s problems are definitely down to Socialism, not remotely due to the Western World(incl. Ireland), under financial threats from the US, implementing crippling sanctions against the sovereign state due to the horrific crime against capitalism of nationalising its own resources!
Good job Varadkar is a qualified doctor and listing to the medical experts, if anyone wants to be critical of him and FG, keep your powder dry for influenza season, for when FF opens up the country the infections and deaths are gonna surge. This virus wants to spread and kill us it doesn’t give a hoot about your job or the economy.
@Del Boy: Most people don’t die from the virus, stop scaremongering, we get enough of that! BTW I wouldn’t trust Leo as my doctor in a month of Sundays.
@xor: but alot of people do die from it . What’s your point ? Ah well , feck them , as long as me and mine are ok I don’t care . Typical Irish individualism attitude .
@Delboy79: Stop scaremongering! Look into the nursing home debacle, alot of lives could have been saved. Some body did say “feck them”!
@Delboy79: Typical troll, reading something into a post that’s not there! Hope they’re paying you well.
@Del Boy: Are you for real? – this virus is clearly not dangerous for the majority of people.
@Del Boy: can you please explain how there could possibly be a flu season this winter with social distance, hand hygiene, and vulnerable wearing masks. Remember its only the vulnerable who end up in hospital. All contagious diseases have been largely eliminated in the past 3 months. Eg, there were 200 cases of mumps in February. Hardly any in April.
@Del Boy: scaremongering nonsense – you need to get off social media , start getting out and doing more walks and get your life out of that mindset – there is nothing to indicate that we cannot reopen and then manage the virus in the community until a vaccine is ready – all this nonsense about the how everyone is going to get infected and die is horsesh*t – i wonder will you still be here commenting by Christmas and if you are will you hold your your hand up and admit you were just fear mongering
LV & MM will walk all over ER. Eamon doesn’t seem to be able to see he’s just being used so the other too can get back into power! I really don’t see this agreement lasting very long!
@Colette Kearns: bring in the British, they will sort it out .
@Colette Kearns: The Green Party membership have to approve any programme for government by a 2/3 majority. That’s not a given. Even some in FG dont want this coalition of the brave. FF are desperate for power and that’s so obvious to all
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: Give your mammy back her phone little boy.
@Johnny 5: moron
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: You’re the MORON saying shiite like that
@Rob: Hardly correct there either, this also has to be ratified by FF paid up members, and that is far from a given .
@Todd Unctuous: are you a re tard
Supermarkets have provided a real time experiment on what happens when retail is open; nothing bad.
There seems to be an unwillingness on present Govt. and on behalf of Dr. Holohan to learn from this real life experience while putting great store on artificial experiments or projections that may be modelled by people unqualified to do so.
@Gerard Carthy: I would say it’s mainly because it’s a care taker government and they are forced into conservative actions.
If they weren’t conservative and we had got overwhelmed like Italy FG would have been finished. “Unelected government destroys country”
Sure keeping with the times we live in today Thrump Johnson and Martin three of the greatest inconsistent spoofers on the planet who played major roles in digging the deepest black holes for their respective countries
@Criostoir Mac Ranghaill: Explain what Martin did to fit in your comparison with Trump and Johnson, remembering they are the leaders of their respective countries?
@NotMyIreland: Physically Martin has exhausted himself carring a very heavy plank of wood on his shoulder and mentally his evil mind and bitterness towards other politicans leaves his ability to represent people totally in shatters
Careful Micheal.. you could upset Leo once to often and he will make Eamon Ryan Taoiseacht before you.
Can we get the New Zealand priminster to run the country !
@Gerard Heery: Primeministers come from the population of a country and are a product of that country. We in Ireland have gotten our political leaders from this countries population. Nothing very bright or original in the population is reflected in not bright or original political leaders.
A few centimetres and the desired pace to maximise the profits of their friends is all that separates both wings of The Triple FG. They couldn’t have a public spat about something important like public health system preparedness for a potential second wave?
Why did mehole cancel the Leaving cert in that case? Suddenly he wants a fast tracking!!
1st July is about right for opening up Ireland’s motorways. Another month of ongoing ultra cautious approach should make this possible, based on current fast-falling case numbers.
Hotels, B & Bs, holiday homes all around the country badly needs summer biz to get cash registers ringing again. Many jobs will return, causing covid-19 state supports burden to diminish further, once social distancing protocols continue to be observed.
Having meals, pints delivered to a hotel bedroom, in a pleasant location miles from home would be vast improvement on what currently passes for normal!
Sometimes, being a thinly populated country with hundreds of miles of easily accessible coastline has its advantages.
If FFG and the greens can get this government formed. It will fall when the inquiry to the nursing homes scandal takes place and Simon Harris wont come on well from it. On Simon Harris watch we have had a cervical cancer inquiry. We will have a nursing homes inquiry. And the IMNO are now looking for an inquiry in how so many of their members got Covid-19.
@Seamus Bridgeman: True Harris isn’t up to much but the real issue was to listen blindly to experts. Most of whom are civil servants in one capacity or another. Irish civil servants don’t do responsibility hence the lack of minutes at the health emergency meetings.
Another bad poll..time to get popular..
@Kieran Graham: my thoughts exactly…
MM should have taken his pension like the rest of the clowns when he was involved in bankrupting the country. He is an embarrassment now.
In other news irrelevant wanna be Taoiseach is still irrelevant. Honestly how many more u turns do we have to endure before FF finally fall into a historical footnote of the ruination of the country?
We did very well, and I have been impressed with our handling of the pandemic, but now the country needs to reopen.
The tourism industry faces decimation from the lack of overseas visitors this year, and we must encourage people to take staycations in order to salvage something from this.
We cannot do this with the travel restrictions of 5k or 20k and we cannot do this while the hotels, B&B’s and caravan sites remain closed.
We must remain cautious but we must now reopen the economy whilst we still have an economy to open.
@Cormac Harrington: I reckon Leo and Co are aware of that. They are asking Dr Holohan constantly to change his advice but he can only answer in relation to the virus.
A leader needs to check what his own goal is and decide what’s best overall (whatever that’s going to be)
In fairness nobody in the government gave just one thought about the consequences of the restrictions. The plan is randomly opening parts of the country and only roughly by what could cause more risk of infection.
People are sitting in their homes since months. Some people cope well and congrats to them. I’m happy that they are fine but people with mental health issues or other underlying issues have issues with the order or some aspects of the restrictions. Increase domestic violence or number of suicide related calls are indicators that something needs to chance.
Yes, I’m aware, that there is a pandemic. Yes, it’s hard for all and yes, peope died.
Don’t start to pretend that you are doing the lockdown for others if you don’t want to take care of others.
@8-Bit-Relic: yes, people died, but I’m alright Jack, let the country reopen!!!!
You can stay in and live, its the easiest thing to do to survive, and you still think that is difficult. Get a grip.
@Paul Cunningham: You couldn’t have better worded that you haven’t read or try to understand that the lockdown is causing issues and parts of it in need of review.
@8-Bit-Relic: The flu kills between 200 and 500 each year in Ireland. I assume those lives don’t matter because we do nothing to prevent the spread of that illness. What’s the number of deaths required for a lockdown?
@Rossa Crowe: You tell me which particular rule is preventing and how much damage it’s causing.
I’m not advocating to remove all rules of your sacred lockdown. Cop on.
Hang on a second. Fianna Fail disregarded the economic experts advice in 2007, and we all know how that ended up. Now they want to ignore the medical experts in 2020. Am I the only one spotting a trend here?
FF ALWAYS THINK OF THE LONGTERM
@Jason Murtagh: Yes .. thinking about the amount of U Turns they can get away with.
Michael Marten, would you ever get my problem solved that I had given to you a good while ago. If you don’t do so now it will never be solved. Please let me know what is happening to my case?
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