Piara Waters woman Michelle Brown watched helplessly as an elderly man who struggled to breathe in a crowded emergency department in Perth’s east was kept in a corridor and told the hospital had no beds available.

The 40-year-old was one of four people free-riding down Gemsstock mountain in Switzerland when the avalanche hit.

Thousands of Icelanders have flocked to the site of the eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 30 kilometres south-west of the capital.

The new variant found in India has two mutations in the spiky protein that the virus uses to fasten itself to cells, which might help the virus spread more easily.

New research suggests people working the night shift are at nearly double the risk of contracting COVID-19 than those who work during the day.