IT’S time for your weekly emergency services update.

Flu Season

NSW Ambulance is urging the community to get their influenza vaccinations ahead of what is set to be a busy winter flu season.

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NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan says it is crucial members of the public have the best protection against viruses as we enter a change in season.

“Having had the Coronavirus is no protection for the influenza virus, they are two very different things.

“If you are a person who remains unvaccinated for either of those, my message is to please get vaccinated for both,” Commissioner Morgan said.

Fire Appliances

The NSW Rural Fire Service is working with Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) to improve the protection of firefighters through the better design of fire appliances.

Over the past eighteen months, MUARC has been conducting a detailed analysis of the NSW RFS vehicle fleet, as well as safety-related data, to help identify key risks that will be used to focus the design of suitable solutions.

It has now reached the next key stage of the project and the NSW RFS is seeking input from members on vehicle safety via an online survey.

The NSW RFS invites all NSW RFS employees and volunteers aged eighteen and over to take the survey:

https://tinyurl.com/RFS-survey

The survey will close on 15 June 2022.

Wild Mushrooms

The wet weather in NSW has resulted in wild mushrooms popping up everywhere.

The NSW Poisons Centre has seen a recent spike in both the number of calls and subsequent hospital presentations related to people eating wild mushrooms with many of these calls from people who had foraged for mushrooms.

Australia is home to many poisonous wild mushrooms and some like the Death Cap mushroom can lead to organ damage and death if ingested.

Many poisonous mushrooms in Australia look similar to edible wild mushrooms found in Europe or Asia and NSW Poisons Control says that cooking or boiling poisonous mushrooms does not make them safe to eat.

“Stay safe and only eat store-bought mushrooms.

“To prevent children ingesting wild mushrooms, check your garden or playground areas and remove and dispose of any mushrooms which have appeared,” the Poisons Control Centre said.

Anyone who has been exposed to wild mushrooms should call the Poisons Centre on 131126 for further advice.

Flubot Scams

Since August 2021, many Australians have been getting scam text messages about missed calls, voicemails or deliveries.

Scamwatch reports that they have received over 16,000 reports of these scams.

These scams have also already been a problem overseas in 2021.

The text messages ask you to tap on a link to download or access something.

There are many variants of the Flubot text messages, but often they ask you to download an app to track or organise a time for a delivery, hear a voicemail message, or view photos that have been uploaded.

However, the message is fake, there is no delivery, voicemail, or photos uploaded and the app is malicious software called Flubot.

Android phones and iPhones can both receive texts from the Flubot.

Scamwatch reminds all residents that if you receive one of these messages, do not click or tap on the link and instead, delete the message immediately.