COVID-19

Anna’s urgent Covid plea

OSTN Staff

The grim assessment was issued early on Wednesday morning by Health Minister Mark Butler. “It’s likely over coming weeks that ...

New political declaration to halve road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030 is a milestone achievement

OSTN Staff

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the political declaration to be adopted by Member States during the High-level Meeting of ...

WHO intensifies response to looming health crisis in the greater Horn of Africa as food insecurity worsens

OSTN Staff

WHO is scaling up its operations in eastern Africa as the region faces acute food insecurity caused by conflict, extreme ...

World Bank Board Approves New Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPR)

OSTN Staff

The devastating human, economic, and social cost of COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to build stronger ...

Passengers leave Covid-infected cruise ship

OSTN Staff

The Coral Princess, with around 2300 people on-board, docked at Circular Quay in Sydney about 6.30am on Wednesday morning. As ...

‘Millions of Covid cases’ in coming weeks

OSTN Staff

That’s despite a warning “millions” of Australians could contract Covid-19 over coming weeks. Mr Albanese has ruled out extending the ...

Covid-riddled Coral Princess docks in Sydney

OSTN Staff

The cruise ship, which is carrying 118 Covid-positive people, zipped into Circular Quay at about 6.30am into the hands of ...

‘Wake up’: Dust-up over working from home

OSTN Staff

Health Minister Mark Butler issued a dire warning to Australians to shake their complacency after federal modelling suggested the current ...

Masks now ‘strongly encouraged’ for schoolkids

OSTN Staff

It comes as 11,176 new Covid cases were announced in Victoria on Wednesday, including 739 people in hospital and 36 ...

Push for masks, WFH as Covid peak looms

OSTN Staff

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said about 800 Victorians were currently in hospital with Covid with 4000 hospitalised across the ...

‘More infectious’: New Covid strain fuels fresh wave

OSTN Staff

Until now, authorities have said people were unlikely to catch Covid twice within a 12-week period.That advice has been slashed ...

Shock number of fines for mask-dodgers

OSTN Staff

Maskless commuters sometimes outnumber those who are obeying the state’s pandemic orders and covering up. Authorised officers have also spoken ...

Big change to advice on Covid immunity

OSTN Staff

There were more than 40,000 new virus cases across Australia in the past 24 hours.A new wave of Covid-19 infections ...

Union chief’s startling claim after latest code red crisis

OSTN Staff

Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria secretary Brett Adie said the pressure on the state’s ambulance network means he would think about ...

’Going to get worse’: Outbreak grows

OSTN Staff

While less than 40 per cent of the population have had a flu jab, just 63 per cent have had ...

Acting Premier passes buck on restoring restrictions

OSTN Staff

It comes after the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee on Friday recommended that employers consider keeping staff at home to ...

Ambo code red amid Covid surge

OSTN Staff

The crisis protocol was in place for one-and-a-half hours from about 2am.Additional staff were recalled, managers returned to duty to ...

Millions to gain access to Covid treatments

OSTN Staff

Eligibility for antiviral treatments – taken as a tablet or capsule – will be added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ...

Real reason pandemic leave scrapped

OSTN Staff

The Albanese government this week pushed ahead with plans introduced by Scott Morrison to scrap the $750 payments made available ...

Health experts call for return to working from home

OSTN Staff

Covid deaths are also expected to spike, amid a “new wave” of Covid infections driven by the highly infectious and ...

Covid sweeping through aged care homes

OSTN Staff

The latest federal weekly aged care report reveals 176 Victorian facilities have active outbreaks, infecting more than 1000 residents and ...

Call made on future Victorian lockdowns

OSTN Staff

Ben Carroll made the comments on Friday, just 24 hours after a ministerial colleague remained tight-lipped on any changes.“We are ...

Rich Aussies queue jumping for Covid meds

OSTN Staff

The revelation comes as pharmacists ask the government to allow them to dispense the medications without a GP script to ...

Baby dies in ER as crisis mounts

OSTN Staff

The tragedy took place at University Hospital Geelong on Monday with the infant’s death to be investigated by the Coroner. ...

Victorian schools may be half empty for term three

OSTN Staff

As the Herald Sun revealed on Friday, some children will return to class next week to watch movies and spend ...

Back-to-class chaos looms as teacher illness spikes

OSTN Staff

Many will continue bringing forward pupil-free days, staggering work-from-home days for different year levels and combining classes, all to cope ...

How Australia is tackling new Covid spike

OSTN Staff

Health Minister Mark Butler said Australia had “moved beyond” the era of broad measures now that “we are deep into ...

The Covid rules still on the table

OSTN Staff

Mary-Anne Thomas is in only in her second week and already is facing serious challenges.“Right now we are seeing a ...

State CHO’s grim third wave warning

OSTN Staff

Dr Andy Robertson cautioned WA was “almost certainly” going to experience a third wave of the pandemic.“What we’re seeing is ...

Fourth Covid jab for over-30s on the way

OSTN Staff

The nation’s expert vaccination panel was on Wednesday in the process of finalising its advice to shake up the vaccine ...