Australia news LIVE: Livestock industry under threat as foot and mouth disease detected in imported meat; COVID cases continue to grow across the nation
Key posts
- Travellers should wash shoes or leave them in Bali: agriculture minister
- Doctors alarmed by severity of latest Omicron wave
- Indonesia pledges to halt foot and mouth outbreak
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Travellers should wash shoes or leave them in Bali: agriculture minister
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt is doing the breakfast television rounds this morning after fragments of foot and mouth disease were recently detected in beef and pork products.
He told Channel Seven’s Sunrise that “biosecurity is everyone’s business”.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, left, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit:James Brickwood
The federal government has a responsibility, and I’m trying to do my part by making sure we’ve got strong biosecurity measures in place at airports.
But it’s absolutely vital that the public do the right thing here as well. The risk of it coming to Australia is extremely low, but it is not zero.
What we are asking people to do is if they have been in Bali, especially [around] livestock … if you are coming back in, clean your shoes. And if you don’t need to bring them back, leave them behind.
Doctors alarmed by severity of latest Omicron wave
Infectious disease doctors are warning that some patients in the latest COVID-19 wave are spending longer in hospital and requiring more specialised care than those in the first Omicron outbreak.
Some physicians on the front line of Australia’s latest coronavirus wave have observed early signals the BA.5 subvariant may be increasing disease severity, amid emerging research indicating it could be more effective at infecting cells in lungs.
Dr Marion Kainer, infectious diseases head at Melbourne’s Western Health.Credit:Penny Stephens
Dr Marion Kainer, infectious diseases head at Melbourne’s Western Health, said that as patient numbers grow, more older people in the city’s west are presenting with more acute respiratory symptoms and requiring more medical support than patients in the earlier Omicron wave.
Western Health is also admitting more patients aged in their 30s, 40s and 50s who haven’t had their third vaccine dose and are very unwell, she said.
More on this story here.
Indonesia pledges to halt foot and mouth outbreak
Viral fragments of foot and mouth have been detected in pork and beef products coming into Australia from China and Indonesia, ratcheting up fears the highly infectious disease could decimate the nation’s livestock industry.
Australia has been free of the disease for over a century. But just one positive case of foot and mouth could shut the $27 billion livestock export trade down for months or even years.
The federal government has estimated the total cost of a major outbreak at $80 billion.
The news comes as Indonesia implores Australia not to panic, despite a shortage of foot and mouth vaccines or even personnel to administer the shots to livestock as Australia’s northern neighbour battles its first outbreak of the virus in decades.
Foot and mouth infects cloven-hoofed animals and does not affect the health of humans. It can be carried on animal products including meat and leather and people can carry it on their shoes, clothes or in their noses, where it can survive for up to 24 hours.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Thursday, July 21. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has urged people returning from Bali to wash their shoes or even leave them behind to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease. It comes after viral fragments were recently detected in pork and beef products coming into Australia from Indonesia and China. Mike Foley and Chris Barrett write that just one local case could shut down Australia’s $27 billion livestock export industry for months or even years.
- Infectious disease doctors say they’re alarmed by the severity of the latest Omicron wave, according to Melissa Cunningham. Yesterday, Australia recorded 53,850 official cases of COVID-19 and 90 deaths. Two of the nation’s biggest employers – Westpac and Telstra – have advised staff to work from home.
- In state news, both Victoria and NSW are dealing with integrity scandals. Yesterday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews apologised to voters after integrity agencies said the state had become a “laggard” in parliamentary integrity. Meanwhile, John Barilaro – the former deputy premier of NSW – has rejected allegations he established a plum international role so he had a job to go to after politics.
- And in international news, the contest to replace outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has narrowed to two challengers: former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss.
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