Unions have hit back at talk of strikes over COVID-19 health concerns,saying they want to “keep people safe and businesses open”.
A proposal by the NSW government to recruit an army of retired teachers and others to address staff shortages when school returns has been attacked,with a few exceptions.
The shift away from PCR testing – and trying to diagnose every case of coronavirus – is a sign of things to come in managing the disease.
About 6.6 million Australians on concession cards will be eligible to pick up 10 free rapid antigen tests after national cabinet agreed to a series of changes to testing.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the federal government had months to prepare for the switch to rapid antigen tests,and they must be made free for everyone.
Australia’s chronic shortage of rapid antigen tests will continue for up to a week as Prime Minister Scott Morrison prepares a plan to give states and territories more free kits.
Today on Please Explain,senior economics correspondent Shane Wright joins Nathanael Cooper to look at some highlights of this year’s cabinet papers.
Record numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases are being reported daily,with more than 37,000 confirmed on Monday. But experts say it’s likely to be eclipsed again.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese labelled the handling of the rapid antigen test rollout a public policy failure while public health experts said it was “astounding” a plan was not already in place this far into the pandemic.
National cabinet has agreed to a new definition of a COVID-19 close contact to mean someone who has been with a confirmed case for more than four hours within a household-like setting.
The country is set to pass 20,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in a day as national cabinet considers sweeping changes to isolation and testing systems.