Highlights:
- New weekly COVID cases continue to rise in New South Wales (NSW)
- Australia's nicotine consumption grew 30 per cent during the early stages of the pandemic: Study
- Fines imposed during the NSW delta wave in 2021 did more harm than good: UNSW researchers
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed tourism jobs have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.
"The recovery for men has been higher than for women. Jobs held by men have recovered to 92.7 per cent of the level it was in 2019 compared with jobs held by women at 86.7 per cent," it said.
ABS head of tourism statistics Jonathon Khoo said jobs associated with holidaymakers showed the most significant recovery.
“However, the education and training sector has seen a much slower recovery of jobs lost during the pandemic,” he said.
On Friday, New South Wales reported 8,905 new weekly COVID cases compared to 7,871 last week.
Victoria also reported an increase in weekly cases. The cases grew from 3,319 to 3,960 this week.
A new study by The University of Sydney and Duke University in the US found that people with cancer suffered "considerable stress during the pandemic due to strict rules preventing a family member, support person or informal caregiver from attending appointments and treatments."
It advocated planning for the next pandemic and better use of technology to include a support person in an appointment.
Researchers at the University of Queensland said nicotine consumption in Australia grew by 30 per cent during the early stages of the pandemic.
Associate Professor Phong Thai said tobacco and nicotine consumption has been decreasing in Australia, but the COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily disrupted the trend.
Researchers at UNSW Sydney said fines imposed during the New South Wales delta wave in 2021 "did more harm than good."
"This is the first of two main consequences that have emerged from issuing these fines – debt that continues to have punitive effects on people's lives," Lead researcher Professor Luke McNamara said.
"The second consequence is damaged police-community relations in those parts of the state that experienced the most intense forms of policing and penalty notice issuance.
"The actions taken by lawmakers to criminalise non-compliance with COVID-19 fines lacked consideration, and communities were punished rather than educated," Prof McNamara added.
World Health Organization's Technical COVID-19 lead Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said it was essential to understand the origin of the COVID-19 virus.
"Understanding how this pandemic began remains absolutely critical not only for the current situation that we are in but also to be better prepared and to prevent future epidemics and pandemics," Dr Kerkhove said.
"At present time, we don't have the data to conclude how this pandemic began."
There was a 40 per cent decline in global COVID cases (4.1 million) and a 57 per cent decrease in deaths (28,000) in the past 28 days compared to the previous 28 days, the World Health Organization said in its latest report on 16 March.
The US, Japan, China, Russia and Germany reported the highest COVID cases at the country level.
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