Coronavirus strikes: first Australian dies
The virus claims its first Australian victim as global infections explode piling pressure on the PM to consider wider travel bans.
The coronavirus has claimed the life of its first Australian victim as infections exploded across the globe, piling pressure on the Morrison government to consider wider travel bans to contain the health crisis.
With five new Australian cases taking the national total to 28 and fears dozens may have been exposed, Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young predicted the state would face an “outbreak of the epidemic” within months.
The death of James Kwan, 78, in Perth on Sunday came as the US registered its first fatality, with a man dying in Washington state.
In an escalation of the crisis, a Sydney man in his 50s was being tested on Sunday as potentially Australia’s first person-to-person transmission. A woman in her 50s, also from NSW, tested positive with the virus after returning from Iran.
There are about 87,000 coronavirus cases globally and nearly 3000 deaths publicly recorded since the virus outbreak was identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
While the majority of infections have occurred in China, South Korea, Iran and Italy, more than 30 countries, including Greece, Brazil, Nigeria, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan and New Zealand, have announced their first cases in the past nine days.
Australian health authorities are moving to set up the nation’s first coronavirus clinic on the Gold Coast following confirmation a 63-year-old beautician who contracted the disease while in Iran had come into contact with up to 40 people. NSW officials also reported a man in his 40s had been diagnosed after arriving from Iran. And late on Sunday it emerged a Melbourne woman had tested positive, also after a trip to Iran.
Queensland health authorities on Sunday urged all people who had returned from anywhere overseas in the past fortnight and who had become ill to seek immediate medical advice.
NSW and Victorian health officials issued similar advice but confined it to those who had travelled to high-risk countries such as Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
The government has so far baulked at imposing tougher travel restrictions on Italy, after coronavirus cases there spiked to more than 1100, with foreign nationals potentially crossing the border to France or Germany to fly to Australia under the EU’s freedom-of-movement convention.
While imposing travel bans on China and Iran, the government has not followed the lead of other nations, including Fiji and the Solomon Islands, in restricting foreign nationals travelling from Italy or South Korea, where 3526 people have been infected.
Health Minister Greg Hunt flagged changes on Sunday to travel advice for Italy and confirmed he had asked Australia’s chief medical officers to focus on a response to the European outbreak.
“I have asked them specifically … as part of their work to consider what the appropriate level of advice is for Italy,” he said. “I have specifically asked them to consider whether or not the current arrangements need to be changed in any way, shape or form.”
The travel advice for Australians from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is to exercise extreme caution in northern Italy, which has been all but shut down due to a coronavirus outbreak. The Morrison government is also under pressure to reconsider its travel advice for South Korea, which has the second worst outbreak after China.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the government was factoring in the superior health systems and transparency regimes in Italy and South Korea as reasons for Australia not expanding travel bans. “If you look at the under-reporting — or the lack of reporting — coming out of Iran to start with I think indicated that there was a real concern as to whether they had a handle on the numbers,” he told the ABC.
“Obviously South Korea has a more advanced health system and they have been reporting numbers for a period of time. So I think there are key differences between those different markets.”
Australian health officials were closely monitoring other outbreaks, including in Thailand, which has 42 cases and recorded its first death on Sunday.
Dr Young said Queensland officials had already tested 2700 people who had returned from China. They had tested negative but she warned an outbreak was inevitable.
“As this outbreak evolves in Queensland and in Australia, we’ll of course be working together at a national level to think through whether we have to do things with childcare centres, with schools, with mass gatherings and so forth. That’s a piece of work that’s currently,” Dr Young said.
The national security committee of cabinet will meet this week to review the effectiveness of the government’s pandemic plan and consider Treasury’s coronavirus economic scenario advice.
The Treasury update, led by secretary Steven Kennedy in tandem with other agencies including Austrade, will provide advice to senior ministers on threatened sectors, including tourism, agriculture and education. Scott Morrison last week flagged the government would look at “targeted, modest and scalable support” for industries hit hard by coronavirus.
The Australian wine and seafood industries, which were also hit by the bushfire disaster, are reporting a downturn in business in China, with the communist nation cancelling events and imposing restrictions on movement. Mr Kwan, who died in the intensive care unit at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, was one of 164 Australians isolated on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama.
Mr Morrison expressed condolences to Mr Kwan’s family, including his wife who was diagnosed with coronavirus two days ago and was described as being in a stable condition.
“We join his family and friends in mourning his passing. COVID-19 is especially more severe for older people with other frailties,” Mr Morrison said.
West Australian Chief Medical Officer Andrew Robertson said Mr Kwan was placed in isolation on arrival in Perth and there was no risk to the community or the nursing staff who treated him.
“I’m very confident … he was in a negative pressure room and then in intensive care, and they were confident the protective equipment they were using was more than adequate,” he said.
After Queensland Health officials moved to set up a dedicated coronavirus clinic, Mr Hunt said officials had begun trying to identifying customers who had come into contact with the infected beautician. “Queensland Health will provide an update on the progress of that. But even as of yesterday, they were making very, very significant progress in tracking down all of those who could be identified,” he said. “They will set up what’s called a respiratory clinic on the Gold Coast so as anybody who is presenting with symptoms can go to a separate clinic.
“This is what’s been anticipated, planned, prepared and designed with all of the states and territories, and this is the first one to be stood up and established around the country.”
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