New data has revealed the number of Queensland doctors seeking help for mental health is higher than pre-COVID levels.

The Queensland Doctor’s Health Programme helpline is receiving calls from doctors regarding mental health and physical concerns.

During 2020, caller’s concerns about physical health increased and reports of mental health issues or chronic stress doubled.

In 2021, concerns over physical health reduced to pre-pandemic levels, however, mental health concerns are still 50% greater than before the pandemic.

Native bees in regional New South Wales are now deemed endangered after the 2019/2020 bushfires in the area. 

The Flinders University study found 50 to 80% of the bees' habitat had been destroyed. As a result two species have been listed as endangered with another nine as vulnerable. PhD candidate James Dorey says, “It's shocking because this is caused by a single fire event.” 

Mr Dorey says this will continue unless climate change is properly addressed.

Remote Indigenous communities in WA may reopen later than the rest of the state. WA health minister, Roger Cook says he understands not all aboriginal communities in the state are on board with the vaccine strategy.

Mr Cook says, “There are some [regions] where quite simply we will not get vaccines into those communities.” 

He says as a result these regions in WA may continue to be locked down as a preventative measure.

Facebook and Instagram are back up and running after a six-hour global outage.

Social media giants confirmed the outage via twitter, stating that some people were having trouble accessing apps and products.

Facebook and Instagram were functional again at around 9am but users reported the pages as “Glitchy.” WhatsApp still appears to be down.

The outage comes a day after a whistle-blower’s debut on US television admitting she leaked documents to authorities alleging the social media giant knew its products were harmful to mental health.

Queensland doctors express fears hospitals won’t be able to cope with rising Covid cases once borders open. 

The Australian medical association of Queensland says systematic problems within Queensland hospitals must be addressed before interstate borders can be opened. 

Emergency physician Dr Kim Hansen says hospitals are currently operating at 100% capacity, which must be brought down before - quote - “the inevitable outbreak of the delta strain.” 

A volunteer for the Queensland Ambulance Service has been honoured for 50 years of commitment. 

83- year-old Enid Machin joined the Ipswich local Ambulance committee in 1971, raising roughly $100,000 dollars over her 50 years of service. This was, at one stage, enough to buy an entire ambulance in the 1970s.

The QAS celebrated her long-term service with an intimate ceremony with family and friends.

QAS West Moreton District chief superintendent Drew Hebbron says, "It would be fair to say her work formed the foundation of the modern ambulance service."

There is growing concern over low vaccination rates in Northern Queensland. 

Parts of regional QLD have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with only a third of residents being fully vaccinated. The figures show only 44.9% of residents in far north Queensland have had their first dose. 

Experts are urging the states health workers to target areas where vaccination rates were lowest. 

TRIGGER WARNING: This next story mentions mental health and abuse. 

The Australian swimming community were left reeling after the loss of Shane Lewis in February this year.

Shane Lewis represented Australia at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and passed away in February this year.

Lewis revealed that he had been sexually abused by elite swimming coach, John Wright, just prior to his death.

Two other former swimmers have revealed they were abused by Wright at around the same time at Brisbane’s Chandler location. 

Over 350,000 Australians have entered the $1million vaccine lottery in less than a day. 

The lottery site which aims to incentivise Australians to get the vaccination, crashed within the first 24 hours of its launch. The initiative was started by the Million Dollar Vax Alliance, “a group of generous philanthropists and corporations.”

Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews has given the initiative a thumbs up of approval saying he's "not fussed about what motivates you, just go and get vaccinated.”