Coronavirus Australia latest: at a glance
Ninth death from coronavirus in Australia
A 68-year-old Queensland man died from Covid-19 on Wednesday night, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease in Australia to nine. The man had a serious underlying medical condition before contracting the virus, Queensland Health said in a statement. The man’s family remains in isolation as close contacts. It’s the second death from Covid-19 in Queensland after a 77-year-old Sunshine Coast woman with an underlying medical condition died in Sydney.
Tens of thousands of workers stood down
At least 35,000 people have been put out of work in just three days by casinos, airlines, retailers and other businesses that have stood down their workers in response to the coronavirus crisis.
On Wednesday Virgin Australia stood down 8,000 staff after slashing its already reduced schedules to the bone, while casino operator Star Entertainment stood down 8,100 workers due to new social distancing rules that have shut down its gambling operations in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans, said the coronavirus crisis would cost 814,000 jobs by June, more than doubling the unemployment rate to 11.1%.
Time running out for Australians trapped overseas
The office of the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said the government would consider supporting Qantas and Virgin if they proposed non-scheduled flights to bring back Australians who were unable to find a commercial flight because of travel restrictions in other countries, or the increasing shutdown of global air services. These would be assessed on a “case-by-case basis”, and only where it was “feasible”. However, there would be no more assisted departures, such as those that brought Australians out of Wuhan earlier in the year. As a result, “it may be necessary for some Australians to stay where they are” throughout the coronavirus crisis, Payne’s statement said.
Among the Australians stranded, more than 300 are in Peru and more than 100 in Ecuador, with others in Egypt, Palestine, Colombia, Morocco and dozens of other countries. There are also thousands of Australians in the US and UK, and across Europe.
NSW police threaten fines and jail time for flouting self-isolation rules
The NSW government has authorised on-the-spot fines for people or corporations or businesses ignoring the physical distancing rules.
NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller says those who don’t isolate for 14 days when ordered to can be fined $1,000 and possibly charged and face six months in jail.
Also under enforcement – public spaces that have been closed, operating businesses that have been shut down, and gatherings in numbers outside the allowable groups.
Border Force blames NSW for Ruby Princess fiasco
Australian Border Force has blamed New South Wales Health for giving the Ruby Princess the green light to dock in Sydney, saying it was state authorities who decided not to send any health officers to the ship to check passengers for Covid-19.
In a forthright press conference, the force’s commissioner, Michael Outram, said ABF’s responsibilities for border control did not extend to health checks.
But the NSW government is still insisting it was federal authorities who categorised the cruise ship carrying 2,700 people as “low risk”, resulting in the release of a major wave of 133 infections in the Australian community.
Non-urgent elective surgery cancelled
All but the most urgent elective surgeries will be suspended to free up resources for a rising number of Covid-19 patients.
From midnight, all elective surgery except for category one – classified as urgent surgery required within 30 days
– and urgent category two (required within 90 days), is postponed.
While surgical teams will still be operating on these urgent patients, as well as performing emergency surgeries, hospitals are preparing to redeploy some staff freed up by the decision to other areas of the country’s hospitals.
Western Australia’s health minister, Roger Cook, said reducing elective surgeries would preserve face masks and other protective equipment, increase hospital capacity and allow for staff training.
Cruise ship passengers to be quarantined on Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island off Perth will be a coronavirus quarantine zone for 800 Australians onboard the Vasco da Gama, as the number of confirmed cases from other cruise ships continue to rise.
All crew and foreign nationals, including 109 New Zealanders, will remain onboard until arrangements are made to fly them out of the country. But 800 Australians, including 200 West Australians, will be immediately transferred to Rottnest for 14 days of isolation.
The island, usually a holiday hotspot, has been cleared of visitors.
“I’m not going to take any chances on this issue,” premier Mark McGowan told reporters on Wednesday.
Doctors warned off prescribing drug undergoing Covid-19 trials
Australia’s drugs regulator has been forced to restrict powers to prescribe a drug undergoing clinical trials to treat Covid-19, because doctors have been inappropriately prescribing it to themselves and their family members despite its potentially deadly side-effects.
The anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the similar compound chloroquine are currently used mostly for patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, but stocks in Australia have been diminished thanks to global publicity – including from Donald Trump – about the potential of the drug to treat Covid-19.
The drugs have potentially severe, and even deadly, side effects if used inappropriately, including heart failure and toxicity. Some Australian media outlets have wrongly reported the drug as a “cure” for the virus.
Advertising collapse hits media companies
Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspapers have warned staff of “inevitable” job cuts, as several independently owned regional papers become the first media casualties of the economic impact of the coronavirus.
Regional newspapers in Victoria, some older than 100 years, have shut suddenly as revenue from advertising dried up overnight.
News Corp’s Australasia chief executive, Michael Miller, said executives would take a “significant” pay cut as the advertising market collapses and staff should brace for job losses and cutbacks, including forced leave, part-time work and nine-day fortnights.