Thursday, September 2, 2021. Australian doctors warn health system may ‘capsize’ when curbs ease, Australian doctors have warned the country’s hospitals are not ready to cope with the government’s reopening plans, even with higher vaccination rates, as some states prepare to move from a virus suppression strategy to living with the virus.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the health system was in danger of being locked into a “permanent cycle of crisis” and has called for new modelling to check if staffing levels in hospitals can withstand an expected surge in cases when lockdown rules ease.
“If you have opened up and you haven’t looked at the safety nets or the life rafts that we’ve got, we might end up actually trying to push more people on the life rafts and capsizing them,” AMA Vice President Chris Moy told broadcaster ABC.
Brazil reports 737 new deaths
Brazil has recorded 27,345 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 737 deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said.
Brazil has registered more than 20 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 581,150, according to ministry data.
Cuba’s vaunted health system straining under cases
Cuba’s vaunted public health system, which boasts more doctors per capita than any other country, has been pushed to the brink in recent months by the arrival of the coronavirus Delta variant.
In a country long left relatively unscathed by the global pandemic, doctors are now battling to get their hands on oxygen and drugs, and patients can wait up to 24 hours for a hospital bed.
Despite having rolled out its own, home-grown vaccines – Latin America’s first – Cuba has seen infections sky-rocket since July, especially in remote parts of the country, and deaths have soared too.
New Zealand says case drop shows lockdown working against Delta
New Zealand reported a drop in new cases of virus, which authorities said was a sign that the lockdown enforced nationwide was working in limiting the spread of the infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Authorities reported 49 new cases, all in the epicentre of Auckland, taking the total number of cases in this outbreak to 736.
“The latest lower number is encouraging and does show that our alert levels 4 lockdown is working even against the Delta,” the Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said in a news conference.
Helped by tech giants, BioNTech vaccines finally reach Taiwan
The first batch of BioNTech SE’s vaccine has arrived in Taiwan, after months of heated political and diplomatic wrangling and helped by the involvement of two of the world’s most important tech firms.
Taiwan has blamed China, which claims the island as its own territory, for nixing an original order from the German firm earlier this year – charges Beijing has angrily denied.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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