police_highway_patrol_car_600_pix.jpg

Four people have been charged over the alleged abduction of a child in Sydney's northwest.

Officers from Riverstone Police Area Command were called to Midlands Terrace, Stanhope Gardens about 12.30pm on Friday after reports of an abduction.

Police were told a four-year-old girl was with her father when a SUV stopped nearby, and a man and woman got out.

Police will allege the woman took the girl and put her in the car before the vehicle left the scene.

The vehicle was later located travelling north on the M1 motorway and stopped by police at Kinta Drive, Beresfield, about 2.20pm.

Two women and two men were arrested and taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station.

The girl was found in the vehicle distressed but uninjured; she has since been reunited with her father.

Police have charged two women, aged 75 and 53, and two men, aged 52 and 60, with take/detain child with intent to remove from parental control.

All four were refused bail and will appear before Newcastle Bail Court today.

Image: Grant Broadcasters

20210402001531813475 police tape web

A woman has been arrested but released without charge after a baby's body was found at a home in southern NSW.

Police searched the house in Corowa in the Murray River region on Wednesday night after hearing concerns about the welfare of a three-month-old boy.

There they found the body of a child.

The body was located in a freezer, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

A 40-year-old woman was arrested and taken to Albury Police Station.

She was released on Thursday morning.

Police say investigations are ongoing, with Strike Force Walumil established to investigate the incident.

A post-mortem examination will be held to determine the cause of death.

The home is now a crime scene and specialist forensic officers are examining it.

© AAP 2022

Image Credit: (AAP Image/James Ross)

corona 6848113 640

Tasmania will give students a back-to-school pack containing two coronavirus rapid antigen tests as part of the plan for returning to the classroom on February 9.

Students should only be tested if symptomatic and further rapid tests would be provided to schools to distribute as required, Premier Peter Gutwein said.

Students or teachers won't be considered a close contact and required to isolate if there are a "small number" of infections in a classroom.

If there are five or more cases in a classroom within a week, the scenario will be managed as an outbreak.

Students will still be required to abide by the household close contact rules, which require people to quarantine for seven days if they've visited the house of a case for more than four hours.

"The public health advice is really clear, and that is schools are safe. The best place for children to learn is in a school," Mr Gutwein told reporters.

Masks are mandatory for teachers and for high school students, but not for primary school students or in early education.

Lunch breaks will be staggered under the plan, which is in place for at least five weeks.

State Health Commander Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said it was "critically important" children have a least one vaccine dose before returning to school.

Some 4600 kids aged 12 to 15 are not vaccinated and 44 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have not been booked in for a first dose, she said.

Deputy Public Health Director Scott McKeown said household and classroom close contacts are being managed differently because of different risk levels.

"When a single case, or a small number of cases, occur within a classroom, they will be identified," he said.

"The education department will inform the carers and parents of those children and any staff in that learning group of a case.

"They will be advised to monitor their child or their student or as a staff member very closely for symptoms and get tested ... if any develop."

Tasmania recorded 927 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with the number of people in intensive care increasing from two to three. Two of them are on ventilators.

Thirty-one people with the virus are in hospital, with 14 of those being treated specifically for virus symptoms.

An outbreak in a medical ward at Mersey Community Hospital in the state's northwest has forced the facility to move to level three of its COVID-19 management escalation plan.

The outbreak, described by health authorities as "contained", increased by one case on Thursday to 11 and includes nine patients and two staff

The medical ward is not admitting new patients and is not allowing visitors or transfers. Overnight elective surgery at the hospital will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Staff are being requested to reconsider taking leave and all non-critical meetings have been cancelled.

Tasmania has 6127 active infections, a drop from Wednesday's figure of 6323.

© AAP 2022

Image by Samuel F. Johanns from Pixabay

20140109000865669948 IVF web

Prospective parents will be able to resume IVF in Victoria after the state government reversed its decision to pause some treatments during its latest COVID-19 outbreak.

Acting Health Minister James Merlino announced some services will restart from Thursday, with hospitals scaling up their operations to enable procedures to resume from 11.59pm on Tuesday.

IVF clinics were contacted by authorities earlier this month and asked to cancel some appointments as part of a pause on elective surgeries in response to the rising number COVID-19 hospitalisations.

The most time-critical IVF procedures for patients such as couples whose eggs were about to expire and women who took pre-cycle medication before January 6 were still able to go ahead.

The move attracted criticism from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and prospective parents, while Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy described it as "cruel and heartless".

An online petition to reinstate fertility and IVF treatments garnered almost 140,000 signatures.

Mr Merlino said he received advice from the chief health officer that restrictions on IVF procedures can be removed, given the "specialist nature of the workforce and the facilities and equipment used are not imperative to support the pandemic response at this time".

The health department will work with the Royal Women's Hospital to prioritise urgent patients, ensuring the changes do not affect the COVID-19 response in that hospital.

"IVF is a challenging journey for anyone to go through, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic, and we're deeply sorry for the distress caused," Mr Merlino said.

Premier Daniel Andrews also apologised for the distress caused by the pause at a press conference on Thursday.

"I just want everyone to know across the community, everyone's doing their very best just to keep people safe. That's what drives us," he said.

He said the pause was based on "very, very conservative" advice provided to the government by health authorities, which is currently under review.

"There's a process going on at the moment to review the advice and a number of other day surgery and day procedures. So hopefully, I can make some announcements next week to add to that list," Mr Andrews said.

Melbourne IVF Medical Director Fleur Cattrall welcomed the reversal.

"We are relieved that the ban has been lifted today; a continued ban for many months would sadly have meant some Victorians would miss out completely on having a baby," she said in a statement to AAP.

"We believe resuming IVF treatment is the right thing to do, and it can continue in a COVID safe manner and without impacting on the current public health response to the pandemic."

Dr Cattrall said the fertility provider had already begun contacting patients to resume treatment.

© AAP 2022

Image Credit: (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)