Locked Down and Fed Up, Australians Find Their Own Ways to Speed Vaccinations

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A stubborn Delta outbreak has kicked a complacent country into gear, with community members working to fill gaps in the government’s sputtering vaccine rollout.

Waiting for a vaccination outside a pharmacy in Cabramatta, a southwestern suburb of Sydney. Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
HOWARD SPRINGS, Australia — After an order of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from the government never materialized, Quinn On realized on Monday that a busy pharmacy he manages in Western Sydney would soon run out of doses. He raced to pick up shots from one of his other stores, while his wife pleaded with local officials for extra supplies.

Their mom-and-pop business has become a vaccination hub where it matters most — in the part of the city where Covid-19 case numbers refuse to decline despite a seven-week lockdown. They had already hired extra pharmacists. They set up a tent on the sidewalk to safely register arrivals. And on Monday, with all their scrambling, they secured a few hundred shots to inoculate a long line of people by day’s end.

“It’s costing us money to do this, but I’m doing this for the community,” said Mr. On, 51, who came to Australia from Vietnam as a refugee when he was 8. “I’m just hoping it will work.”

All over Australia, hope is struggling to gain momentum as an outbreak of the hyper-contagious Delta variant has thrown almost half the population into lockdown. Nearly 18 months into the pandemic, as other Western nations have vaccinated their way to relative safety or just decided to live with the virus, Australia remains locked in an all-out war. The odds of victory, with a return to zero Covid, have grown ever steeper. » | Damien Cave | Thursday, August 12, 2021

As Covid Surges in Florida, DeSantis Refuses to Change Course

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has been unyielding in his approach to the pandemic. Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
THE NEW YORK TIMES: A virus spike connected to the Delta variant has led to a record number of Covid-19 hospitalizations in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis has not altered his approach, for better or worse.

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida snapped this week at a reporter who asked if masks might help keep children safe in a state that now has more Covid-19 hospitalizations, including for pediatric patients, than anywhere else in the nation.

He blamed President Biden’s purported failure to control the spread of the virus across the border after the president suggested that governors like Mr. DeSantis should either “help” fight the coronavirus or “get out of the way.”

And he touted a new state rule, adopted on Friday, that will counter local school mask mandates by allowing parents to request private school vouchers if they feel that the requirements amount to “harassment.”

Mr. DeSantis has been unyielding in his approach to the pandemic, refusing to change course or impose restrictions despite uncontrolled spread and spiking hospitalizations — an approach that forced him to undertake the biggest risk of his rising political career.

The governor reopened his state’s economy last spring and kept it that way, defying coronavirus surges that filled hospitals, and then celebrated as a statewide vaccination campaign took hold and life in Florida began to look normal.

Now Mr. DeSantis is gambling again. A new virus spike has led to a record number of Covid-19 hospitalizations that have undone some of Florida’s economic and public health gains and again raised the stakes for Mr. DeSantis. » | Patricia Mazzei | Friday, August 6, 2021

Australia’s Covid Crisis: Victoria Enters 6th Lockdown as New South Wales Cases Hit New Record

The Sydney Harbour Bridge in New South Wales. The Australian state recorded 262 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
THE GUARDIAN: Three largest states under strict controls as Delta variant spread worsens and Sydney warned to expect more bad news in coming days

The Australian state of Victoria has entered its sixth lockdown to join the country’s two other largest states under varying degrees of coronavirus restrictions as the Delta variant continues to spread.

Lockdowns have been enforced across the east coast, including Australia’s three largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – putting more than 60% of the country’s 25 million population under strict stay-home orders.

Victoria, which endured one of the world’s longest lockdowns in 2020, began a snap, seven-day lockdown on Thursday in response to an outbreak of unlinked new infections.

The latest round of restrictions include rules that have become wearily familiar to Victorians – including only being allowed to leave home for five reasons, a 5km travel limit for exercise and shopping, and compulsory masks indoors and outdoors – and come only 10 days after the last mini-lockdown ended. » | Martin Farrer | Friday, August 6, 2021

Sydney Suffers Worst Day of Pandemic with 262 Cases and Five Deaths as Delta Spreads North

THE GUARDIAN: Beach party in Newcastle triggers snap lockdown in Hunter and Upper Hunter, while virus found in sewage puts Armidale and Dubbo on high alert

A beach party in Newcastle attended by young people from western Sydney has triggered a snap lockdown in eight regional local government areas as New South Wales authorities worry that the Delta variant of Covid is now spreading in the regions.

NSW recorded 262 coronavirus cases and five deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm Wednesday – its worst day so far in the pandemic. At least 72 cases were in the community for all or part of their infectious period.

But it is the detection of fragments of the virus in sewage systems in Armidale and Dubbo as well as in the Newcastle and the Central Coast that has authorities most worried. With video » | Anne Davies | Thursday, August 5, 2021

Florida May Face Its Worst Wave Ever as Delta Variant Spreads.

A coronavirus testing site in Miami on Thursday. Credit...Marta Lavandier/Associated Press
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The state is about a month away from its peak, according to an epidemiologist who tracks the virus there.

As the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus rips through the unvaccinated population in the United States, Florida is heading toward its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic. The state is still about one month away from its peak, according to an epidemiologist who has been tracking the virus’s reach there. “Short term and long term, the cases are going to explode,” Edwin Michael, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, said in an interview on Monday. “We are predicting that the cases will be peaking the first week of September.” » | Adeel Hassan | Monday, August 2, 2021

Germany Will Offer Vaccine Booster Shots Starting in September »