Coronavirus Australia latest: at a glance
Good evening, here are the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Ben Doherty with you, this Wednesday, 27 May.
One death in Queensland: active cases remain below 500
Australia has recorded 7,133 cases of Covid-19. There are currently 478 active cases across the country. South Australia recorded another case from a person travelling into the state on an exemption for compassionate grounds. Meanwhile, the ACT and Northern Territory have no active cases.
A 30-year-old Queensland man died in Blackwater, bringing the national death toll to 103. NSW 50, Victoria 19, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, SA 4, ACT 3. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in both states’ death tolls).
More than six million of an estimated 16 million people with smartphones have registered for the federal government’s Covidsafe tracing app since 26 April. The federal government had forecast a need for 10m people to download it in order for it to be an effective tool.
Globally, there are more than 5.5m confirmed cases, and the death toll has surpassed 350,000. 2.2m people have recovered from the virus.
30-year-old man in Queensland dies from Covid-19
A 30-year-old man was found unresponsive yesterday afternoon at his home in the small western Queensland town of Blackwater, and could not be revived.
He had been displaying Covid-19 symptoms in the week leading up to his death, but he had several other significant health complications.
A postmortem Covid-19 test returned positive. He is the youngest person to die of Covid-19 in Australia.
Of additional concern with this man’s case, beyond his comparative youth, is the fact that his case has no known link.
The man had not travelled overseas, or left Blackwater since February. He had spent most of the last few weeks at home.
There had been no other recorded cases of Covid in Blackwater prior to the man’s death.
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Six crew aboard live export ship test positive to Covid-19
There has been continuing fallout over the Al Kuwait live export ship docked in Fremantle. Six sailors from the ship have tested positive to Covid-19.
Initially, WA premier Mark McGowan said his state health authorities were not warned by the commonwealth that there were sick people aboard. Today, it emerged there had been an email that had not been acted upon.
McGowan said:
The six sailors are in quarantine in Perth and are said to be displaying only mild symptoms. Other crew remain on
board the ship and have been tested for the virus by WA health authorities.
In Victoria ...
Eight new cases have been reported in the past 24 hours. Four have come from routine testing, and one is still under investigation.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, says there are no plans to have the state return to its usual work patterns anytime soon.
Cedar Meats, the Melbourne abattoir at the centre of a Covid-19 cluster of more than 100 cases, will restart operations, including processing, on Thursday. About 300 staff are expected to return to work.
Staff who have been medically cleared to start work attended a return to work information session at Cedar Meats’ Brooklyn site today.
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