分类： 未分类

Western Australia’s Perth, Peel and South West regions have entered a five-day lockdown.

It’s resulted in a major change for the way people in these areas live their lives.

So what are the COVID lockdown rules for Perth and the regions, and how will they affect you? We break down the Government’s rules for you below.

When can I leave home?

You can only leave home for essential reasons.

They include:

• Shopping for essentials and medicine
• Accessing medical or health care services
• Exercise, but only within your neighbourhood for one hour per day
• Work, if you cannot do so from home

You also can’t have visitors, unless they are there to care for you if you are vulnerable.

There are some exemptions for people who need to travel to care for a vulnerable community member, and on compassionate grounds.

If you are visiting the Perth or Peel region from elsewhere you are being asked to stay there until the lockdown is over.

Should I wear a mask?

First and foremost, you are only able to leave your home for one of the above four reasons.

If that is the case, a mask is required at all times outside.

If you work indoors, wearing a mask in your workplace is mandatory.

If you are catching public transport, you must also wear a mask.

If there’s more than one person in the car, everyone has to wear a mask.

What if I don’t have a mask?

Police can fine people, but State Emergency Coordinator and Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said they would only do so if people ignored warnings.

Where possible, officers would be handing out masks to people who don’t have their own.

Mr Dawson also encouraged people to make their own masks, if they don’t have one already.

He says he has asked police to act with discretion.

Under the current rules, there are a number of exceptions to wearing a mask, including:

• Children under 12
• Those with an illness or disability that makes wearing a face mask unsuitable
• Those engaged in teaching, lecturing or broadcasting
• While eating and drinking
• When asked to remove a mask for identification purposes
• Prisoners or detainees in a place of custody

What exercise can I do?

Those wanting to go for a jog can do so, but they must wear a mask.

“You can walk, you can run, but in our rules, and I’ve checked this personally with our Chief Health Officer, you must wear a mask at all times,” Mr Dawson said.

Obviously people are not required to wear a mask while swimming, but they must stay within five kilometres of their home whenever exercising.

“We know it’s hot weather, but you can’t just simply say I’m going to drive 25 kilometres to the beach,” he said.

You can exercise on your own, or with another member of your household.

The WA Government has clarified that those with children can exercise in a group of up to a maximum of five members of the same household, provided no more than two adults are members of the group.

So one parent could take four children out to exercise, or two parents could take three children.

Two adult housemates could exercise together, but three could not, even if they all live in the same house.

Who is an essential worker?

People working in childcare, hardware stores and banks are among those classed as “essential workers”.

The Government has published the full list of essential workers, which covers about 30 sectors, including those working in the mining and resources industries.

“They generate about one third of the nation’s GDP, so they are essential to keep the Australian economy going,” the Commissioner told ABC Radio.

“What we have seen is very responsible behaviour by the resources sector.

“They have their own testing, they’re very scrupulous.

“It’s not only just in the resources sector’s interest, it’s in everyone’s interests that we keep our factories and our mines and all [those] sort of operations running.”

Mr Dawson said while the list of essential industries was extensive, people should still stay at home wherever possible.

“We’re not looking for excuses for people to go to work, we want people to stay home,” he said.

“If you must go to work and you’re an essential worker, then clearly act responsibly.”

Is the SafeWA app mandatory in supermarkets?

Yes, it will be compulsory to use the app in supermarkets and takeaway food and coffee outlets from 6:00am tomorrow.

There was already a plan to extend the scheme to supermarkets from February 12, but Premier Mark McGowan has brought that forward, urging people to use the app, or leave their name on a paper register.

Independent Grocers Association President John Cummings told ABC Perth most supermarkets have the app clearly displayed, yet few shoppers were using it during yesterday’s panic-buying.

“The QR codes went out the window, nobody bothered,” Mr Cummings said.

Mr Cummings described the panic buying as “unbridled chaos”, saying supermarkets did two to three times more trade yesterday than on a normal Sunday.

He moved to assure shoppers the state’s hundreds of supermarkets were not going to run out of supplies.

“There will be over a million cartons of stock delivered today and every day,” he said.

“We are not going to run out … we really aren’t.”

Will product limits be introduced?

Both Coles and Woolworths will open an hour earlier, at 7:00am WST tomorrow, to ease congestion in supermarkets.

Coles WA general manager Pat Zanetti said buying limits were also being introduced.

“Toilet paper and paper towels are down to one per customer,” he said.

“And then a number of items like pasta, flower, rice, eggs, sugar and canned meat are all two products per customer.”

Mr Zanetti said face masks had sold out yesterday and stock would be replaced tonight.

“We will probably open tomorrow with masks but we wouldn’t have enough to supply all of WA so it’s going to be first in, best dressed.”

Where can I travel in WA?

People are being asked not to leave the Perth, Peel or South West regions for the length of the lockdown.

The government says people can only enter the lockdown areas, or travel between them, “to access or deliver essential health and emergency services and other essential requirements”.

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson clarified that under the rules, Perth and Peel regions are considered one—meaning people can freely travel between them.

Can I still travel to WA from interstate?

The WA Premier Mark McGowan has recommended that other states and territories put a stop to travel into WA.

Should I get tested?

If you have symptoms — yes.

But also if you live or work in the Falkirk Avenue, Maylands area including Coles, Liquorland and the Maylands shopping precinct you must present for a test.

You must also get tested if you have been to any of the following exposure sites:

• Coles Maylands supermarket on 25 January from 8pm to 10pm
• KFC Maylands on 27 January from 6pm to midnight
• Mitsubishi Motors car dealership in Midland on 27 January from 7pm to close
• Spudshed, Coventry Village in Morley on 27 January from 8pm to midnight
• Perth Arena Grab N Go Convenience Store on 27 January from 2pm to 3pm
• ECU Joondalup on 28 January from 11am to 2pm
• VFS Global Indian Visa Services on Adelaide Terrace in Perth on 28 January from 12:30pm to 3pm
• Halal Grocery Store in Cloverdale on 28 January from 7pm to 9pm
• Venus Ladies and Gentleman Hair Design Maylands hairdressers on 29 January from 1pm to 3pm
• Perth Convention Centre on 29 January from 4pm to 6pm
• Nedlands Family Practice GP surgery on 29 January from 5pm to 6pm
• Chemist Warehouse North Perth Pharmacy on 29 January from 5.30pm to 7.30pm
• 7-Eleven Ascot petrol station on 29 January from 8pm to 9pm
• Coles Maylands supermarket on 29 January from 8pm 9pm
• Puma Service Station in Burswood on 30 January from 11am to 12 midday.
• Coles Express/Shell Service Station in Cloverdale on 30 January from 12 midday to 3pm
• Pharmacy 777 at Maylands Park Shopping Centre 30 January from 2.30pm to 4pm.

These are the venues that must close

A range of venues and businesses that are closed in lockdown, including:

• pubs, bars and clubs
• gyms
• indoor sporting facilities
• playgrounds and skate parks
• cinemas and entertainment venues
• the casino
• religious venues
• libraries
• restaurants and cafes (but they can still open for takeaway)

Funerals and weddings will also be impacted.

Funerals will be reduced to 10 guests and weddings scheduled for the next five days must be cancelled.

What is happening with schools and childcare?

WA Premier Mark McGowan said public and private schools in affected areas would close.

However those outside the lockdown zones will be open for students to attend class.

Mr McGowan described it as an extension of the school holidays for those in the affected zones.

It is not clear whether learning from home options will be offered by some institutions.

Mr McGowan said the Government would work with the private schools to look at how they deal with their boarders who had already arrived for the new school year.

“It is an issue, at this stage they are not any particular risk, we have got no indication that they are at risk but will obviously need to look at how we lock them down in the next week,” he said.

Childcare centres will remain open for the children of people who cannot work from home.

Will my surgery go ahead?

Elective surgeries for category two and three will be suspended Tuesday, but category one and urgent category two surgeries will continue.

Patients are being asked not to contact hospitals, but rather wait for hospitals to contact them about rescheduling their appointments.

How did the patient contract COVID-19?

A security guard in his 20s was working at the Sheraton Four Points hotel which is one of the locations where international travellers are being quarantined.

The State Government said he was working on the same floor where there was a positive case of the highly transmissible UK variant of the virus.

The Premier said it was possible he had caught this variant.

The guard worked two 12 hour shifts on both the 26th and 27th of January.

Before this, on January 15, 17 and 23 he tested negative to the virus as part of routine testing of hotel quarantine workers.

Exactly how he caught the infection is under investigation.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration says the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine poses “no specific risk” to older patients, after concerns were raised by Norwegian officials following a number of deaths in aged care.

Officials in Norway issued a warning last month after the country recorded a small number of deaths among older people who received the vaccine and suffered side effects.

About 30 people in the country died after receiving the vaccine and experiencing side effects.

All were patients in nursing homes and were older than 80.

At the time Australian authorities said they would seek more information about the issue.

When the TGA approved the vaccine last week it did not set an upper age limit on people who could get the jab and has released a statement directly addressing the concerns from overseas.

It said it had been working closely with the European Medicines Agency and Pfizer on further investigations.

“The case reports were discussed at a recent meeting of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee, which concluded that there was not a specific safety concern, and no causal link between vaccination and deaths could be established,” it said.

“The TGA therefore has concluded that there is no specific risk of vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in elderly patients.

“Elderly patients can receive this vaccine and there is no cap on the upper age limit.”

It said as well as the EMA meeting, talks with North America, the United Kingdom and Europe “reached a similar conclusion”.

The Federal Government has bought 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is set to be rolled out in Australia at the end of the month, with frontline health and quarantine workers and people in aged care first in line.

The TGA is also currently considering approval of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, of which the Government has secured 51 million doses.

“The TGA will continue to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines as they are rolled out in Australia and internationally,” it said.

新型コロナウイルスのワクチンを夏までに3億人に接種するという大規模な計画を始めているインドでは、個人の接種状況などを一元的に管理するデジタル・プラットフォームを政府が開発し、円滑な接種につなげる方針です。

新型コロナウイルスの感染者が世界で2番目に多いインドでは、先月からワクチンの接種が始まり、政府は医療従事者や50歳以上の人、基礎疾患のある人を優先し、夏までに3億人に接種する計画です。

この大規模な計画の実行に向け、政府は「Co-WIN」と呼ぶ新たなデジタル・プラットフォームを開発しました。

接種を希望する人は専用のアプリにインド版のマイナンバー、「アーダール」などをひも付け、電話番号や基礎疾患の有無などを入力して登録します。

準備が整うとアプリで会場や日時を選んで予約できるようになり、接種の回数などが管理できるほか、接種を受けた証明書もデジタルで発行され、必要に応じて交通機関や飲食店を利用する際に提示できるということです。

政府にとっても、優先接種の対象でない人が抜け駆けで接種を受けることなどを防げるほか、接種の全体状況や各地のワクチンの在庫状況も適切に把握できるとしています。

この仕組みの運用に携わるインド電気通信規制庁のシャルマ前長官は「接種状況を記録するのに必要不可欠なものであり、政府と個人、双方にメリットがある」と有効性を強調しています。

インド版マイナンバーが大きな役割

インドでは、「アーダール」と呼ばれるインド版のマイナンバーがさまざまな行政サービスのデジタル化で大きな役割を果たしています。

ヒンディー語で「基礎」を意味する「アーダール」は12桁の個人識別番号で、およそ10年前に作られました。

利用者は指紋や虹彩と呼ばれる瞳の模様などの情報を登録し、個人と番号とをひも付けます。

もともと貧困層への給付金の配布のために導入が始まり、今では、本人確認の手続きや電子署名、電子決済など、さまざまな手続きをスマートフォンやパソコンでできるようになっていて、人口13億のうち90％以上が登録しています。

「アーダール」を活用したデジタル行政の仕組みを作った、IT企業インフォシスのナンダン・ニレカニ会長は「パンデミックにおいて、ペーパーレス、キャッシュレス、そして対面しなくても成り立つ仕組みはとても便利だ」と話しています。

そして「政府には異なる省庁や局があり、それぞれ独自のシステムを作っていてシステムどうしがつながっていないことが多い。アーダールは横串を刺した仕組みにしたことで、便利で簡単に使えるため、多くの国民が使っている」と述べ、利便性を強調しました。

現金給付でもデジタル活用

インドでは新型コロナウイルス対策として行われた貧困層などへの現金給付でもデジタル技術が活用されました。

去年3月、インド政府は、全土で厳しい外出制限を行ったことで経済に深刻な影響が出たため、貧困層や失業者などに現金の給付を行いました。

対象は4億2000万人、総額は日本円で9800億円に上りました。

給付はアーダールにひも付いた個人の預金口座にオンラインで送金するシステムが利用され、政府は支援を必要とする人を速やかに特定し、迅速に給付できたとしています。

首都、ニューデリーの貧困地域で夫と2人の子どもと生活するラトネシュ・カシャップさんも給付を受けた1人で、屋台で生計を立てていた夫が外出制限によって仕事を失い、月に1万円余りあった収入がなくなりました。

給付金は、政府が支給を決めてから1週間後に最初の振り込みがあり、3回にわたって合わせて2000円余りが支給され、食料の配給など、ほかの支援と合わせて生活を続けることができたといいます。

カシャップさんは「給付金によって日用品などを買うことができとても助かりました」と話していました。

個人情報保護の観点から懸念の声も

インド政府は、医療分野でもデジタル化を推進していく方針ですが、個人情報の保護の観点から懸念の声も出ています。

モディ首相は、去年8月の独立記念日の演説で「保健分野に革命をもたらす『ナショナル・デジタル・ヘルス・ミッション』を始める。診察の予約や支払いなどの問題を解決する」と述べ、医療分野でもデジタル化を推進する方針を明らかにしました。

計画では国民一人一人に医療IDが付与され、かかった病気や処方された薬のほか、診察した医師や診察内容が記録され、データベース化されます。

患者の同意のもとでデータが医師や医療機関などと共有され、患者は迅速に効率的な医療を受けられるようになるほか、政府や民間企業も膨大なデータを基に必要な政策を決めたり、新たなサービスを開発したりできるようになるとしています。

一部の地域では試験運用が始まっていて、政府は全国に拡大する予定ですが、個人情報の保護の観点で専門家からは懸念の声も上がっています。

デジタル分野での個人情報の保護を訴える国際的な団体のラマン・ジット・シン・チマさんは「インドには適切なデータ保護の法律がなく、健康に関する個人情報が政府だけでなく民間企業にも提供され、利用されることが大きな懸念だ」と話しています。

そのうえで「膨大なデータを集めているが政府と独立した監視機関がない。データやプライバシーを保護する独立した機関による開かれた議論が行われるべきだ」として、拙速にデジタル化を進める前に個人情報保護などの仕組みづくりを進めるべきだと指摘しています。

専門家は

行政のデジタル化に詳しい一橋大学の市川類教授は、インドの事例から日本が学べる点について「インドの場合は、個人識別番号を作るにあたって新しい省庁を作り、デジタルに詳しい非常に有力な民間企業の人材をトップに据えた。システムを構築する事業者に単に委託するのではなく、政府みずから考えて事業者と一緒に進めていく体制作りが重要だ」と述べました。

また、日本の行政デジタル化の現状について「利用者の目線に立ち、国民にとって利用しやすいシステムができているのかが大きな論点だ。全体的に使い勝手がよいとは言えない」と指摘しています。

そして、新型コロナワクチンの接種に関する情報のデジタル化については「世界では、ワクチンの接種を受けたことを示すデジタル証明書を作る議論もあるので、今後、証明書として使えるようにするためにも、接種情報とマイナンバーをきちんとひも付けていくことは重要で、そういった開発を進めていくことが課題になる」と述べました。

In a major breakthrough for Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet has published preliminary Phase III trial results showing it is highly effective – notably, for all age groups.
Data from 19,866 volunteers – 4,902 of whom were in the placebo group – showed that Sputnik V had an overall efficacy of 91.6 percent, rising to 91.8 percent among the group of 2,144 volunteers over the age of 60, according to the interim results of the Phase III clinical trial published in the Lancet on Tuesday.

At the end of the study, there were 62 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the placebo group and only 16 in the vaccine group. Sputnik V proved to be 100 percent effective in preventing the development of severe cases.

The trial results are a “great success in the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow which developed Sputnik V, said.

“The data published by The Lancet proves that not only Sputnik V is the world’s first registered vaccine, but also one of the best,” Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which sponsored the vaccine’s development, said. He added that Sputnik V also outperforms other vaccines in terms of price and ease of transportation and storage, calling it “a vaccine for all mankind.”

While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require very low temperatures – between -70C and -20C – Sputnik V can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius without spoiling. The Russian-made vaccine also relies on two different adenovirus vectors – genetically modified flu viruses that cannot reproduce in the human body – which generate a more effective defense compared to other vaccines using the same vector for both shots.

“This vaccine appears to be highly efficacious and immunogenic across age groups,” said Cecil Czerkinsky, research director from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. He pointed out that the dual formulation vaccine is comparatively easy to manufacture and deploy, something that is very helpful amid the anticipated global shortages and logistical issues with vaccine rollouts.

His colleague from the UK’s University of East Anglia, Professor of Medical Microbiology David Livermore highlighted the “impressive results” Sputnik V has shown, as it is “the first adenovirus vector vaccine to achieve the 90 percent efficacy seen with the two mRNA vaccines.”

For Professor Hildegund Ertl from The Wistar Institute in the US, “the most crucial parameter” of the jab is that it is 100 percent effective in preventing serious disease or death.

Sputnik V is the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, registered in August 2020. It is one of only four vaccines in the world whose Phase III clinical trial results have been published in leading peer-reviewed medical journals.

“The development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticised for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency,” the Lancet comment following the article suggests. “But the outcome reported here is clear and the scientific principle of vaccination is demonstrated, which means another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of COVID-19.”

Actually, Sputnik V is already in the fight. Apart from Russia, 15 other countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa have already approved the vaccine.