MELBOURNE, Australia — Police used pepper spray to subdue protesters Saturday at an anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest metropolis.
About 1,000 demonstrators gathered within the suburb of Richmond after the situation of the protest was modified on the final minute to evade authorities.
There have been minor scuffles in addition to a violent confrontation involving a handful of protesters. A number of protesters have been arrested.
A lot of the demonstrators defied rules by failing to put on masks.
Some 2,000 law enforcement officials have been deployed at street checkpoints and barricades, and on roving patrols, to attempt to cease the rally going forward in breach of public well being orders.
Melbourne’s sixth lockdown started on Aug. 5. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria state, which on Saturday reported 535 new infections and one COVID-19 loss of life within the newest 24-hour interval.
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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:
— US panel backs COVID-19 boosters just for seniors, high-risk
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— Crisis standards of care information medical choices as COVID-19 overwhelms hospitals
— UN utilizing honor system to examine vaccinations for giant meeting
— Many religion leaders will not endorse vaccine exemptions
— See AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Navy leaders on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have declared a public well being emergency in response to growing COVID-19 instances in Alaska.
Additionally they inspired all personnel to keep away from locations that don’t require masks or social distancing, officers stated.
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U.S. Air Pressure Col. Kirsten Aguilar stated Friday that the declaration will stay in impact for 30 days, however may very well be shortened or prolonged based mostly on instances and group transmission of COVID-19.
Hospitalizations and COVID-19 instances throughout the state have elevated because of the extremely contagious delta variant. Alaska on Friday reported greater than 1,200 newly confirmed instances per 100,000 folks over the previous two weeks.
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PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — American Samoa reported its first case of coronavirus on Friday.
The U.S. territory’s performing governor and well being officers stated the islands’ first case of COVID-19 was of a resident who returned to American Samoa from Hawaii this week.
The contaminated traveler flew in on Monday, the primary day of newly resumed industrial flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago. The route had been suspended since March 2020.
Officers say the resident was totally vaccinated and had traveled to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. They are saying the traveler examined detrimental for COVID-19 earlier than boarding the flight again to American Samoa.
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American Samoa requires all vacationers to be vaccinated and to quarantine.
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BATON ROUGE, La. — A baby is among the many newest to die from COVID-19 in Louisiana, state well being officers stated Friday.
Heath division figures confirmed the state loss of life toll from the sickness grew by 52. One of many victims was a toddler between the ages of 5 and 11. Fifteen folks youthful than 18 have died in Louisiana because the pandemic started. And it’s the sixth pediatric loss of life since a fourth surge started this summer season.
Coronavirus hospitalizations continued to drop. They fell to 1,367 in Friday’s figures, 64 fewer than the day prior to this. Hospitalizations are down from a peak of greater than 3,000 in August however nonetheless properly above the pre-surge ranges of mid-summer.
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WASHINGTON — The White Home says President Joe Biden will host a digital summit subsequent week aimed toward “calling the world to account” on defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The assembly, to happen on the margins of the United Nations Common Meeting, is supposed to encourage extra nations to do extra to vaccinate the world in opposition to COVID-19 and enhance coronavirus therapies.
Press secretary Jen Psaki says Biden “will likely be asking individuals to decide to of a better degree of ambition” on world vaccinations and therapeutics, together with getting ready for the subsequent pandemic.
The U.S. has dedicated to donating the extra COVID-19 vaccine doses than every other nation to the remainder of the world, and Biden is anticipated to ask different well-off nations to make bolder vaccine sharing commitments.
The White Home says world leaders, philanthropists, business representatives and non-governmental organizations will take part.
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BEND, Oregon — Dozens of individuals in Oregon have contacted the state’s poison heart after self-medicating in opposition to COVID-19 with a drug used to deal with parasites, with 5 turning into hospitalized and two of them winding up in intensive care models, authorities stated Friday.
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The drug they used was ivermectin, which has no confirmed use in opposition to the coronavirus and is as a substitute authorized to deal with some parasites in folks and a few animals.
“COVID-19 is a devastating illness and will be very scary, however the public doesn’t want to make use of — nor ought to it use — unproven and probably harmful medicine to battle it,” stated Robert Hendrickson, medical director of the Oregon Poison Middle at Oregon Well being & Science College.
Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 14, the Oregon Poison Middle at OHSU managed a complete of 25 instances. 5 of these instances concerned hospitalization, and two folks have been so severely unwell that they needed to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
Throughout the nation, calls to poison management facilities concerning ivermectin overdoses or exposures has elevated five-fold from the pre-pandemic degree, in keeping with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
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