Weekly COVID news at a glance

1   Second repatriation flight from India arrived

The second repatriation flight bringing 165 Australians from India landed in Darwin on Sunday with no passengers prevented from boarding. 

The travellers have now begun their 14-day quarantine at the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.

Last week, the first repatriation flight arrived half-filled after 80 of the planned 150 passengers couldn’t fly due to COVID-positive test results. This time no passengers tested positive prior to departure from India, but this does not mean they will not test positive while quarantining.

Flights resumed last week after the Australian government controversially placed a temporary ban on flights from India late last month.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the number of flights will soon increase, allowing a total of six more flights to land before June 4.

There are still over 11-thousand Australians in India, who have registered as wanting to return home as the country continues to battle with COVID-19.

2  mRNA Vaccine Production Facility Approved

The Federal government has approved the development of a new Australian mRNA vaccine production facility.

Global pharmaceutical companies have eight weeks to submit proposals on how they will establish domestic vaccine manufacturing in Australia.

The companies need to demonstrate how the mRNA vaccine supply will be maintained  and their capacity to increase production if needed. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the new facility won’t fix current problems with Australia’s vaccine rollout but will protect against future viral outbreaks.

The facility will take a year or more to fully establish. Messenger RNA vaccines are a new technology used first during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been successful so far and has less side effects than non-mRNA vaccines.

 3  Speeding up vaccine exports demanded

South-East Asian country leaders have united to demand wealthier countries, like the United States and Britain speed up COVID-19 vaccine exports. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin led the calls, as the region struggles with new COVID-19 variants, low vaccination rates and vaccine supply shortages.

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin

The countries are also demanding that the global pharmaceutical patent system, that gives countries intellectual property rights to vaccines, be suspended.

At Thursday’s Future of Asia conference, Malaysia’s leader said the 27 wealthiest countries have over 35 per cent of global vaccine supplies but only cover 10 per cent of the world’s population.

He said those countries have more than enough vaccine doses for their own people and should do more to help other countries.

4  Vaccination hesitancy an issue

As Australia’s vaccine rollout remains slow, about 1.5 million allocated vaccine doses remain unused in storage.

New South Wales and Queensland are vaccinating people the slowest at 3.8 and 3.3 per every hundred people respectively, but Victoria has also struggled .

Australia-wide, 12 doses have been administered per every hundred people and around 70 per cent of allocated doses have been used, with aged and disability care facilities using almost all their doses.

The Northern Territory has used only 58 per cent of their doses for 10 doses per every hundred people and Victoria just over 70 per cent. There is now a push for the government to do more to tackle the community’s hesitancy around vaccinations.

5  Mask mandatory in Victoria state

Victorians who do not wear masks on public transport could now be fined $200-dollars as the state police launch a crackdown this week on people disregarding COVID-19 restrictions.

Masks are still mandatory on all public transport, unless people have a valid exemption, but Department of Transport figures have shown many are failing to comply with the rules.

Transport Minister Ben Carroll said about half of Victorian public transport users are not wearing masks.

To increase compliance, police and public service officers will now be at train stations, and tram and bus stops across the entire state.

They will initially offer free masks to commuters and will only issue fines if commuters refuse to wear one.

6  Regional Campuses a preference

The head of a Victorian university says they expect more students will choose regional campuses as a preference for study as the population continues the move to the country areas due to the pandemic.

La Trobe University’s chancellor John Brumby says country campuses are growing in importance as students opt for regional study.

La Trobe University’s chancellor John Brumb

The first in-person graduation ceremonies since the pandemic began, were recently held at La Trobe University’s regional campuses in Mildura, Shepparton, Bendigo, and Wodonga. 

Mr Brumby said the shift in numbers was evident, especially at the Bendigo campus, with a number of students who would have normally studied in Melbourne making the move.

Despite the growing numbers, Mr Brumby warned there were still struggles for regional universities to reach their full potential, with border closures seeing revenue declining.

The university is also hoping for an effective quarantine system that will help to boost international student numbers.