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Australia’s police arrested 235 people in Melbourne and 32 in Sydney on Saturday at unsanctioned anti-lockdown rallies and several police officers were injured in clashes with protesters, reports Reuters.
Victoria police said six officers required hospitalisation. Several officers were knocked to the ground and trampled, the police said and television footage showed.
About 700 people managed to gather in parts of Melbourne, as 2,000 officers made the city centre virtually a no-go zone, setting up checkpoints and barricades. Public transport and ride shares into the city were suspended.
In Sydney, riot squad officers, highway patrol, detectives and general duties police were also deployed to the streets, preventing large gatherings.
Australia has been grappling with an outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus since mid-June, with both Sydney and Melbourne, and the capital Canberra, in strict lockdowns for weeks now. On Saturday, there were 1,882 new coronavirus cases reported, most of them in Sydney.
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Professor Adam Finn has warned of “very uncertain times” in the pandemic over the coming months, and urged people to take precautions such as wearing masks, even if they are not mandatory, reports PA.
Asked about winter, Professor Finn, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told Times Radio:
I think we’re all concerned. We’re in a position of uncertainty as we have been from the outset.
Things are changing all the time and although we have some insight into the future and we’ve learned a lot about the vaccine programme and other things, there is still a high level of uncertainty.
With people interacting and behaving more normally, we are going to see the circulation of infections that more or less disappeared last winter, and they are going to provide an additional burden.
We don’t really know what’s going to happen with the trend in cases of Covid but it’s certainly still circulating. So I think we’re entering very uncertain times.
I would strongly encourage people to go on taking precautions, even though they’re not being required to. I certainly am. On a personal basis, I use a mask when I’m inside with other people and I’m avoiding social contact beyond a fairly low level, and I think if everybody continues to do that we can bring down the risk to some extent.
4.02am EDT
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Unvaccinated university students have been urged to get a Covid jab in freshers’ week to protect themselves and their peers against the virus, PA reports.
The NHS’s top doctor has called on freshers to get the vaccine at pop-up clinics and walk-in centres set up by universities before their courses begin.
Thousands of students will be arriving at university campuses across the UK over the next few weeks.
Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, said:
Starting university is a really exciting time and getting your Covid vaccine means you will be armed with maximum protection against the virus.
With many universities set to run pop-ups and walk-ins throughout the first weeks of term it has never been easier to get protected, so I urge anyone yet to be vaccinated to take up the offer as soon as possible.
Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of Universities UK, said:
We welcome this reminder to students from Professor Powis, which echoes messages from universities to their students that they should make every effort to get vaccinated before the start of the university year.
Updated
at 4.06am EDT
4.02am EDT
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Anti-lockdown protestors clash with police in Melbourne
Justine Landis-Hanley
Victoria police clashed with anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, as the Australian state recorded another 535 new coronavirus cases and one death.
About 1,000 protesters gathered in the north-eastern suburbs of Richmond and Hawthorne, forced to make a last-minute change of location after 2,000 police officers formed a “ring of steel” around the Melbourne CBD.
Public transport to and from the city was suspended between 8am and 2pm on Saturday, and police set up road checkpoints, barricades and roving patrols around the city in an effort to thwart the protest.
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at 4.03am EDT
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Holiday bookings surge expected after UK government relaxed international travel rules
Holiday bookings are expected to soar after the government announced a relaxation of international travel rules.
Alan French, the chief executive of travel firm Thomas Cook, said October half-term bookings were up 200% compared with August and he expected this figure to increase as a result of the changed system, reports PA.
He said:
Based on our bookings already today, I would expect this weekend to be the biggest of the year so far as people take advantage of the great deals on offer, the new easier rules on testing and the simplified system for international travel,” he said.
On Friday, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that the traffic light system was set to be replaced from 4 October by a single, reduced “red list” of destinations, from which travellers arriving in England will have to quarantine in a government-supervised hotel.
People who are fully vaccinated will no longer need a pre-departure test before returning from non-red list destinations, and from the end of October, they will be able to replace the day two PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow test.
Updated
at 4.04am EDT
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