Australia reported the country’s first death of the coronavirus was a former passenger of the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise.
The 78-year-old man died early Sunday in the intensive care unit at a Perth hospital after he was infected on the ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, officials said.
“Our condolences are with his family and unfortunately he’s the first death we’ve had from coronavirus in Australia,” Andrew Robertson, the chief health officer of Western Australia state, told reporters.
His family was able to speak to him through the isolation window before his death, the Guardian reported.
“This very tragic case is related to the Diamond Princess, so the community shouldn’t be panicking at this stage,” Robertson said.
Australia has 26 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including the man’s 79-year-old wife, who is in stable condition.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday that he was “very saddened” to learn of the man’s death.
“We join his family and friends in mourning his passing,” he tweeted, adding that they “will continue to do all we can to protect Australians from coronavirus.”
He was the sixth passenger to die from the virus from the ship, which has seen more than 700 people test positive for the virus, according to the BBC.
Worldwide, there have been more than 87,000 people infected and nearly 3,000 deaths since the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
Giuseppe Scarcella (Duc Panigale), -65.829, 1:37.968
Matthew Tooley (Yam YZF-R1), -68.587, 1:38.020
28. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), -11 laps, DNF, crash/mechanical, 1:41.943
More, from a press release issued by Motorcycling Australia:
Wayne Maxwell Takes Win 2 In Superbike Race 2 Thriller
Wayne Maxwell (47) leads Cru Halliday (65) during Race Two at Phillip Island. Photo by Russell Colvin, courtesy Motorcycling Australia.
What a blockbuster finish to race 2 of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul, Kawasaki Superbike class, at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit today, with Boost Mobile K-Tech Wayne Maxwell scoring a back to back win.
We knew 2020 was going to be an epic season and the Kawasaki Superbike field certainly didn’t disappoint today with bar banging battles right throughout the field.
While Maxwell snuck away to an early lead Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday stalked him all the way to the finish and threatened a serious challenge.
Despite being within striking distance, Halliday admitted after the race he was on the edge and didn’t want push it too hard and crash.
The real battle of the race was for third position with a cavalcade of riders dicing including Desmosport Ducati Mike Jones, Penrite Honda’s Troy Herfoss, JW Racing Josh Waters, Kawasaki BC Performance Bryan Staring, 2019 ASBK Ironman Award Winner – Kawasaki Australia’s Matt Walters, and William Adams Cat Yamaha of Daniel Falzon.
Herfoss, Staring and Jones swapped third spot on every lap, leaving fans salivating at the action, while the Walters, Falzon and Waters no doubt were hoping for them to push each other wide to open up a gap.
It wasn’t to be with Jones snatching third gaining some solid points after he failed to start in the first race.
Staring took 4th, Herfoss 5th, Waters 6th, Falzon 7th, Walters 8th, Yamaha Racing Teams’s Aiden Wagner 9th and Maxima BMW’s Glenn Allerton 10th.
“Fantastic start for everyone at the Boost Mobile K-Tech team, there is so much effort that goes in behind the scenes, for the first round, infrastructure everything has to be organised and trying to piece all the partners and sponsors together,” said Maxwell after his win.
“We’ve managed to do it and not only do it but win two races.”
Halliday was pleased with his result.
“I pushed so hard to get to Wayne then the tyre started to get hot,” he said after the race.
“Wayne is so fast at the first part of the track and it’s hard to make up time.
“I was going to make a pass around Lukey but I’d wash the front out, in the end it was good racing at the end of the day.”
New Zealand’s prime minister lashed out at her Australian counterpart Friday, accusing him of “testing” the friendship between the two nations and accusing his country of deporting “your people and your problems.”
Jacinda Ardern took Scott Morrison to task during an extraordinarily testy joint news conference over his country’s rigid policy of deporting foreign criminals to homelands they left as children.
She called the policy unfair and corrosive, and warned that she did not wish to see the allies engage in a tit-for-tat “race to the bottom."
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, stands with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during the signing of the Indigenous Collaboration Arrangement at Admiralty House in Sydney, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. (Bianca De Marchi/Pool Photo via AP)
“Australia is well within its rights to deport individuals who break your laws. New Zealand does the same. But we have a simple request: Send back Kiwis – genuine Kiwis,” Ardern said, according to the Guardian. “Do not deport your people and your problems.”
She said her nation takes into account a person’s ties to the nation and does not deport those “considered for all intents and purposes to have established themselves as New Zealanders.”
Australia needed to do the same, she argued.
New Zealand and Britain receive many felons under the policy, but long-time Australian residents are sent to countries where they don’t speak the language, and have no family or community ties.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, talks with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a meeting at Admiralty House in Sydney, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. (Bianca De Marchi/Pool Photo via AP)
Ardern said many of the 2,600 New Zealand citizens Australia deported in recent years had no “home” in New Zealand because they left years ago. New Zealand courts were dealing with these long-term Australian residents who were failing to rehabilitate because they lacked the necessary family and social networks, she said.
“We will own our people. We ask that Australia stops exporting theirs,” she added.
Morrison publicly held firm, saying Australia has no plans to abandon the policy.
“The Australian government’s policy is very clear,” he said. “We deport non-citizens who have committed crimes in Australia against our community.
“This policy is applied not specific to one country, but to any country whose citizens are here. You commit a crime here, if convicted, once you have done your time, we send you home,” Morrison added. “And we have no objection to any country – anywhere – who would apply the same rule in terms of Australian citizens who commit crimes in other places.”
The issue has been a point of tension between the two nations for several years, however, it has heated up recently as Ardern has made it an election issue.
Australia's Wildfires: 'Unprecedented' May be an Understatement The Weather Channel
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd2VhdGhlci5jb20vbmV3cy90cmVuZGluZy92aWRlby9hdXN0cmFsaWFzLXdpbGRmaXJlcy11bnByZWNlZGVudGVkLW1heS1iZS1hbi11bmRlcnN0YXRlbWVudNIBAA?oc=5
Green groups have sought for decades to protect it, but Canberra has been open to extracting the possible oil riches there.
Equinor is now the latest oil and gas company to have abandoned proposals for drilling in the area since 2016, following competitors BP, Chevron and Karoon Energy.
The decision has been welcomed by activists and some lawmakers who had argued that oil and gas extraction would threaten wildlife and the climate.
Breaking!! Oil giant Equinor has scrapped plans to drill in South Australia’s gorgeous Great Australian Bight. This is a huge win for the community, the environment and SA’s tourism and fishing industries. Good for the planet & jobs. Congratulations to everyone who fought so hard
Thousands of people protested in Australia and Norway in the past year, while activist shareholders had also raised the project with the company's board.
On Tuesday, Equinor said a review of its global exploration portfolio showed better opportunities for new fields elsewhere.
"Equinor has decided to discontinue its plans to drill the Stromlo-1 exploration well, as the opportunity is not commercially competitive," it said in a statement.
Wildlife refuge
Phil Mercer, BBC News in Sydney
The Great Australian Bight is a large open bay, roughly in the middle of the continent's vast southern edge. Whales come to give birth, and it's a refuge for sea lions, dolphins and penguins.
It was, until Tuesday's decision, also a frontline in another battle between the global resources sector and an alliance of anti-drilling protesters.
Equinor was expected to start work later this year on an exploratory well about 400km (248 miles) out to sea at a depth of around 3km.
Industry representatives had called the site "an internationally significant frontier" in the search for oil, comparing it to the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Mexico.
But campaigners had feared the threat of an oil spill and ecological disaster.
"There are more unique species there than on the Great Barrier Reef," Greenpeace activist Jamie Hanson told me recently. He added that Australia would be helpless to contain an oil spill.
That risk has now abated, but campaigners are still pushing for permanent protections.
Australia's government said many people would see the company's withdrawal as "extremely disappointing" for economic reasons.
One legislator said the nation "desperately" needed to improve its own oil security.
"We used to be self-sufficient but now we rely heavily on imported oil," tweeted Senator Matthew Canavan.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said the nation remained committed to encouraging new drilling proposals in its waters.
"The Bight basin remains one of Australia's frontier basins and any proposals for new oil and gas fields in this area will be assessed fairly and independently," he said.
Green groups have sought for decades to protect it, but Canberra has been open to extracting the possible oil riches there.
Equinor is now the latest oil and gas company to have abandoned proposals for drilling in the area since 2016, following competitors BP, Chevron and Karoon Energy.
The decision has been welcomed by activists and some lawmakers who had argued that oil and gas extraction would threaten wildlife and the climate.
Content is not available
Thousands of people protested in Australia and Norway in the past year, while activist shareholders had also raised the project with the company's board.
On Tuesday, Equinor said a review of its global exploration portfolio showed better opportunities for new fields elsewhere.
"Equinor has decided to discontinue its plans to drill the Stromlo-1 exploration well, as the opportunity is not commercially competitive," it said in a statement.
Wildlife refuge
Phil Mercer, BBC News in Sydney
The Great Australian Bight is a large open bay, roughly in the middle of the continent's vast southern edge. Whales come to give birth, and it's a refuge for sea lions, dolphins and penguins.
It was, until Tuesday's decision, also a frontline in another battle between the global resources sector and an alliance of anti-drilling protesters.
Equinor was expected to start work later this year on an exploratory well about 400km (248 miles) out to sea at a depth of around 3km.
Industry representatives had called the site "an internationally significant frontier" in the search for oil, comparing it to the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Mexico.
But campaigners had feared the threat of an oil spill and ecological disaster.
"There are more unique species there than on the Great Barrier Reef," Greenpeace activist Jamie Hanson told me recently. He added that Australia would be helpless to contain an oil spill.
That risk has now abated, but campaigners are still pushing for permanent protections.
Australia's government said many people would see the company's withdrawal as "extremely disappointing" for economic reasons.
One legislator said the nation "desperately" needed to improve its own oil security.
"We used to be self-sufficient but now we rely heavily on imported oil," tweeted Senator Matthew Canavan.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said the nation remained committed to encouraging new drilling proposals in its waters.
"The Bight basin remains one of Australia's frontier basins and any proposals for new oil and gas fields in this area will be assessed fairly and independently," he said.
