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What we know today, Monday February 14

Three deaths have been added to South Australia’s COVID total despite none being recorded in the past 24 hours, as the state recorded 1027 new cases. Victoria and New South Wales have recorded another 16 COVID-related deaths as NSW public hospital nurses prepare to strike tomorrow over pandemic workloads and pay.

Feb 14, 2022, updated Feb 14, 2022
Sydney intensive care nurses rally in January. A general nursing strike is planned for Tuesday. Photo: AAP/Sam McKeith

Sydney intensive care nurses rally in January. A general nursing strike is planned for Tuesday. Photo: AAP/Sam McKeith

Three deaths added to SA’s COVID tally

Three deaths have been added to South Australia’s COVID total despite none being recorded in the past 24 hours, as the state recorded 1027 new cases.

Premier Steven Marshall told reporters “there were no deaths in the past 24 hours but we’ve uncovered three from previous periods”, two from January 19 and one from as far back as January 7.

Marshall said there were currently 13,426 active cases, which he said was the “lowest level for a very long period of time”.

“To have just over 1000 positive cases in a day is really a fantastic result for South Australians working together,” he said.

There are currently 214 people in hospital with COVID-19, 18 of whom are in intensive care, with five on ventilators.

NSW public hospital nurses prepare to strike

New South Wales has posted another 14 Covid-related deaths, as public hospital nurses prepare to strike over patient ratios and pay.

Most of the 6184 new positive cases were recorded from rapid antigen tests, with 2144 PCR tests returning positive results.

Hospitalisations have risen slightly overnight to 1649, with 100 people in intensive care.

Premier Dominic Perrottet says the state is in a “strong position” in the pandemic but is going through a “transition”.

“If you take a step back and look at the hospitalisations and ICU presentations things are certainly heading in the right direction,” he said.

Meanwhile, nurses in public hospitals plan to strike tomorrow for the first time in a decade.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association General Secretary Brett Holmes says the strike will impact 150 public hospitals when nurses strike from 7am on Tuesday.

The timing and length of the action will vary from hospital to hospital and skeleton staff will remain at work to ensure patient care.

Holmes said it was “really painful” for nurses to take strike action but they had to send a strong message to Perrottet.

“If he doesn’t listen there will be tens of thousands of nurses who are considering their future,” he said on Monday.

The union has been pushing for minimum staff-to-patient ratios.

“We need a health system where there’s a guarantee that there are enough nurses and midwives on every shift, not just on average over a seven day period,” Holmes said.

Nurses are also unhappy with the government’s 2.5 per cent a year pay offer, which Holmes described as “a complete insult” to nurses who put themselves on the line every day during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nurses and midwives have done everything possible to try and keep people alive and the government basically slapped them in the face with this,” he said.

Meanwhile, members of the Australian Paramedics Association have voted almost unanimously to implement 24-hour statewide bans on staff movement on Thursday.

Staff movement is the practice of relocating staff from their station to fill ‘roster gaps’ nearby.

The union says staff movements are routinely used by NSW Ambulance to cut costs and avoid adequately staffing stations.

“Paramedics are exhausted, frustrated, and burnt out,” APA NSW President Chris Kastelan said on Monday.

The union has been calling for more resources – including 1500 more paramedics – as the health system strains under the burden of the two-year pandemic.

The union has a clear set of demands including a massive investment in specialist paramedic programs and a real pay increase, in addition to a pandemic bonus and allowance.

“We’re not just at crisis point — we’re now years into a crisis, with no indication of a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Perrottet says 2800 nurse graduates last week began working in 130 hospitals to boost the workforce.

Skeleton staff will maintain patient care while most nurses walk off the job, calling for minimum staff-to-patient ratios and better pay.

Victoria lifts ‘code brown’ Covid alert

Victoria has reported 7104 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths, as the state lifts its COVID-19 health system alert amid the easing Omicron wave.

Of the new cases revealed on Monday, 5046 were detected through rapid antigen tests and 2058 via PCR lab testing.

Health authorities say the state is now managing 53,707 active cases in total. There are 465 people in Victorian hospitals, no change from Sunday’s number.

66 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, 18 of them currently require ventilation.

At midday on Monday, Victoria’s unprecedented system-wide “code brown”, implemented more than three weeks ago will be lifted.

The code brown alert came as the Omicron wave placed pressure on the hospital system, with urgent services cut back and staff able to be asked to postpone leave.

Health Minister Martin Foley said on Friday the government is confident the alert can be safely repealed, but hospitals are “still going to be very, very busy”.

Melbourne public hospitals will continue to be restricted to emergency and urgent elective surgery with the exception of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital.

Those two hospitals, and regional public hospitals can resume category two elective surgery if staff are available.

‘Harrowing’ evidence given to Defence and veteran suicide Royal Commission

A royal commission investigating defence and veteran suicide has been told of “harrowing” personal evidence given in private from around 40 face-to-face witnesses.

The royal commission hearings in Sydney this week will hear from those who have had suicidal ideation and family members of those who’ve taken their lives.

The five-day probe will also turn its attention to matters including negative interactions with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and delays processing claims.

In opening remarks, Commissioner Nick Kaldas told the inquiry that his team had so far conducted around 40 private hearings with those in the veteran community, and had received over 250 applications for private sessions from across Australia.

“During these sessions, we commissioners have been honoured and humbled to hear in detail the difficult … personal stories of those we meet.

“During each and every private session we learn something new,” Commissioner Nick Kaldas told the inquiry on Monday.

“I’m confident we’ll learn much more over the course of the inquiry.”

The royal commission issued more than 150 notices to the Defence Department, the DVA, and “various other bodies”, resulting in the receipt of more than 320,000 pages of material to review, he said.

It had also received more than 1100 submissions from a range of people, ex-service organisations and experts.

“These have been important in helping us to identify common themes and areas for further examination,” Mr Kaldas said.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Peter Gray QC, said this week’s hearings would address issues of urgency, including delays in processing ADF claims, describing this “backlog” in claims as the focus of the hearing.

He described the backlog as “unacceptably high” and said it had greatly increased since March 2019, with the time taken to process some claims at DVA doubling in two years to an average of around 200 days.

It is also expected to air allegations from army nurses that healthcare standards dropped since the ADF switched health services providers.

Witnesses due to give evidence this week include personnel from DVA, staff from consulting firm McKinsey and medical experts on the issue of veteran suicide, the inquiry was told.

The Sydney sessions follow hearings held in Brisbane in 2021, which were sparked after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared in March last year he would not block a move to examine the issue of ADF and veteran suicides.

Compared with the general population, suicide rates are 24 per cent higher for ex-serving men and double for ex-serving women, according to federal government data.

Lifeline 13 11 14

All students back to school as hybrid learning program ends

All South Australians students are due to return to school for face-to-face learning today in the final stage of the Marshall Government’s staggered return to school program.

Children in years 2 to 6 and teenagers in years 9 to 11 have been learning from home during the first two weeks of term one in a bid to curb the number of infections in the state’s ongoing Omicron wave.

Those students, equating to roughly 60 per cent of the cohort – or 170,000 children – are due to return to school today after their peers began the school year face-to-face on February 2.

The first two weeks of school has seen the Education Department avoid a teachers strike from the Australian Education Union over complaints about a lack of provision of rapid antigen tests.

However, it has also seen upwards of 400 teachers and student support staff across the workforce isolating due to being COVID-positive or a close contact.

The Education Department has assured principals that there is a standby workforce of up to 4000 temporary relief teachers if needed to fill the gaps left by COVID.

Premier Steven Marshall this morning emphasised that parents should not send their kids to school if they’re displaying COVID symptoms and instead take them in for a PCR test.

But he assured parents they can be confident of their kids’ safety at school.

“There were people catastrophising that we would have a massive second wave in South Australia, in fact what we’ve had is five days of lowering numbers,” he told ABC Radio this morning.

“We expect that there might be a change in the median age … of those who become COVID-positive, but it’s a pretty small movement.”

South Australia recorded two COVID-positive deaths and 1165 cases on Sunday.

There are currently 211 people in hospital with the virus, 17 in intensive care and four on a ventilator.

Meanwhile, new figures obtained by the RAA show that 21,345 drivers were caught speeding or running red lights at a school crossing in the last financial year – an increase of more than 1000 offences on the previous year.

RAA senior manager of safety and infrastructure Charles Mountain urged caution on the first full day back of school.

“Pedestrians and cyclists – especially young children – are among the most vulnerable road users and RAA urges motorists to exercise vigilance and caution around schools,” he said.

“We’d expect the roads to start to return to usual traffic conditions, so it’s a good idea to allow yourself a few extra minutes to reach your destination, particularly if you’re doing a school drop-off as well.”

Politicians return to Canberra amid unrest

Thousands of people take part in a ‘Convoy to Canberra’ protest outside Parliament House in Canberra, Saturday, February 12, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Politicians are returning to Canberra for the final sitting week before the federal budget next month, having avoided a 10,000-strong protest march at the weekend.

The key complaint of the protesters was vaccine mandates across the country, something Prime Minister Scott Morrison says are largely the decisions of state premiers, not his.

He insists the federal government has only ever supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers and those who are working in high-risk situations in the health system.

But Labor senator Kristina Keneally said it was the prime minister who set up the national cabinet and was prepared to take all the credit when the premiers took their measures.

“As soon as a group of protesters walks into town critical of some of those decisions, he points the fingers at the premiers, says ‘it’s not my fault, it’s theirs’,” Senator Keneally told ABC’s Insiders program.

ACT police wanted the protesters out of the campsite where they have congregated over the past couple of weeks by Sunday so the territory’s Canberra Show can be set up.

Meanwhile, more members of the Australian Defence Force have been deployed to residential aged care facilities with 38 sent to Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW.

There are now 200 personnel throughout Australia available to help nursing homes cope with COVID-19 cases including 17 with the Department of Health coordinating ADF support.

Man dies in Limestone Coast car crash

A man from Victoria has died after his car crashed into a tree near Naracoorte on Sunday.

Police say they were called to Frances Road in the state’s South East around 11:30am on Sunday following reports of the crash.

A 37-year-old man from Victoria died at the scene, police say.

It is the sixth death on South Australian roads this year, after another man died in Tulka near Port Lincoln on Saturday night after crashing into a Stobie pole.

That driver, a 46-year-old man from the area, died at the scene.

His passenger, a 53-year-old woman from Whyalla Stuart, was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition.

South Australia’s road toll at this point last year was 10.

Ukraine president unconvinced of Russian invasion threat

A WWII memorial in Sievierodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Feb 12, 2022.(Photo: Vadim Ghirda/AP)

Ukraine’s president has played down intensified warnings of a possible Russian invasion within days, saying he has yet to see convincing evidence.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments came even as the US warned of more Russian troops pressing closer to Ukraine’s borders and some airlines cancelled or diverted flights to the country.

The White House said President Joe Biden would talk later on Sunday with Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader’s repeated statements urging calm among his people – while Russian forces surround his country on three sides in what Russia insists are military exercises – grew this weekend, with Zelensky questioning strident warnings from US officials in recent days that Russia could be planning to invade as soon as the middle of next week.

The US picked up intelligence that Russia was looking at Wednesday as a target date, according to a United States official familiar with the findings.

“We’re not going to give Russia the opportunity to conduct a surprise here, to spring something on Ukraine or the world,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday.

“We are going to make sure that we are laying out for the world what we see as transparently and plainly as we possibly can.”

The US has largely not made public the evidence it says is underlying its most specific warnings on possible Russian planning or timing.

The Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain an invasion.

This week, Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land on the coast.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday that Russia had well over 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, “and actually, over the last few days, even more”.

Kirby cited “a mosaic of intelligence” the US had gathered but gave no details.

Crows defeated in huge AFLW upset

The Western Bulldogs have withstood a furious second-half revival from Adelaide to upset the previously unbeaten Crows by one point in an AFLW boilover at Norwood Oval on Sunday.

The Bulldogs, who won 8.1 (49) to 7.6 (48), and only scored their first win of the season last week, never trailed and won away for the first time since beating the Crows at the same venue in round one of 2019.

Sparked by midfielders Ellie Blackburn and Kirsty Lamb, the visitors scored the first 19 points and led by as much as 24 in the second quarter.

By halftime, Adelaide had already conceded more points than in the entirety of any of their five previous games this season.

Adelaide dominated territory in the second half, but the Bulldogs hung on despite playing more than half the game two players down.

The Crows trailed by 15 early in the final quarter but goals to Ashleigh Woodland and Stevie-Lee Thompson cut the deficit to three points.

A couple more Adelaide behinds set up an incredible finish, with Erin Phillips falling just short from a set shot and Caitlin Gould having a close-range kick smothered, as the Bulldogs desperately defended a couple of stoppages from around ten metres out in the final minute.

So close. #weflyasone pic.twitter.com/z2c4cUS6Wd

— Adelaide Crows AFLW (@CrowsAFLW) February 13, 2022

“I just can’t believe in that last minute or so or so we didn’t let it go in,” Blackburn told Fox Footy.

“We were just yelling at each other ‘don’t let them score, don’t let them score.’

“We started off really well and they are a really good side, so we knew they were going to come we just had to hold on.”

Ebony Marinoff accumulated 26 disposals for the Crows while Anne Hatchard racked up 23 and Phillips 20, 16 of them in the second half.

Aussies beat Sri Lanka in T20I super over

Steve Smith receives medical attention after falling whilst attempting a catch last night (AAP Image/Brendon Thorne)

A stunning Josh Hazlewood display in a super over has helped Australia to consecutive T20 international wins over Sri Lanka at the SCG, although a concussion has ruled out star batsmen Steve Smith for the rest of the series.

Hazlewood backed up his figures of 3-22 by conceding just five runs in the super over to quell any hope of a Sri Lanka win on Sunday.

The biggest concern for Australia out of Sunday’s game, though, was a concussion for Smith in the field which has ruled him out for the remaining three games of the series.

In front of a crowd of 6,305, Sri Lanka needed 12 off three balls to chase down a victory target of 165 when Maheesh Theekshana hit Marcus Stoinis for six off his very first delivery.

Smith went to flick the ball back into the field of play but he landed directly on his temple.

Smith went off for treatment before Dushmantha Chameera tied the scores by hitting the last ball for four.

“It all happened pretty quickly and whenever someone dives and doesn’t get up it’s a concern,” Hazlewood said.

“It’s good to see him walking around now and he’s walking around the changing room now. The early signs are good and I guess the medicos will make their call and assess him later.”

Cricket Australia said they would not look to bring a replacement into the squad.

Josh Inglis (48) proved the best of Australia’s batters, and Sri Lanka were sluggish in their response before they began to get on top through Pathum Nissanka (73) and captain Dasun Shanaka late in their innings.

Hazlewood’s economical bowling, conceding just five runs, kept Sri Lanka at bay with Stoinis leading Australia to victory with the bat, crashing two boundaries.

“I reckon that’s my first super over actually so it’s good to get one out of the way,” Hazlewood said.

“I felt reasonably confident. I think I bowled in the 19th over and executed pretty well.” .

The two sides are next in action when they travel to Canberra on Tuesday.

-With AAP and Reuters

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