Coronavirus: Toll hits 50, nearly half from liners

Nearly half of all deaths in Australia resulting from the corona­virus pandemic can be traced back to cruise ships.

James Kwan died in Perth after contracting COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise liner.

Nearly half of all deaths in Australia resulting from the corona­virus pandemic can be traced back to cruise ships, with 15 of the dead having travelled aboard the ill-fated Ruby Princess liner that is now at the centre of a NSW police investigation.

As the national death toll reached 50 on Wednesday, it emerged that 21 of the dead had recentl­y been on a cruise, with a further six of the fatalities being residents of the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged-care facility at Macquarie Park in Sydney’s northwest.

Three were patients in the oncology and ­haematology ward of Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and another three had recentl­y travelled overseas.

On Wednesday, a 62-year-old woman from South Australia, who was the second fatality in the state, died after contracting the virus as a passenger on the Ruby Princess.

The state currently has 420 COVID-19 cases, with 86 of them linked to the ill-fated ship.

The woman's death followed that of 75-year-old Francesco ­Ferraro, who died on Monday in a case linked to interstate travel.

Other named victims linked to the Ruby Princess include Len Fisher, 81, who died in Tasmania on March 31; Janet Lieben, 67, who died in Orange, NSW, on April 1; and 85-year-old Des Williams from Toowoomba, west of Brisbane­.

The infection source for 16 other deaths out of the total in Australia so far remains unclear but men outnumber women 29-21, with the youngest fatality being a man in his 50s.

Health authorities have been ­reluctant to release information about their identities, how they might have become infected and whether they came into contact with others.

However, they appear to be standing by analysis indicating most of the nation’s confirmed cases, and deaths, are connected to overseas travel.

The number of recorded coronavirus infections in Australia late on Wednesday was 6013, with NSW accounting for the biggest proportion at 2734, followed by Victoria at 1212, Queensland 943, Western Australia 481, South Australia 420, ACT 99, Tasmania 98 and the Northern Territory 28. While the daily increase in new cases has dropped to about 3 per cent, health experts are concerned COVID-19 could still be widely transmitted among unwitting community members.

 

Of most concern is the almost 550 people who have been infected with coronavirus by someone who didn’t know they had it.

According to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and Worldometer, between 1000 and 2500 patients have recovered.

Of the 50 deaths reported by late on Wednesday, most were older people, aged between 68 and 95, and mostly aged in their 80s or 90s who appeared to have had underlying health conditions.

Of the other cruise-­related deaths, the first was that of 78-year-old James Kwan, who died at a Perth hospital after returning to Aust­ralia from the ­coronavirus-rife Diamond Princess in Japan.

Garry Kirstenfeldt, 68, died in a Toowoomba hospital on March 25, after he disembarked the Voyage­r of the Seas in Sydney and returned home to Queensland.

Ray Daniels, 73, died in Perth’s Joondalup Hospital after a cruise aboard the Celebrity ­Solstice.

As the number of reported cases began to level out on Wednesday, Scott Morrison warned Australians not to be complacent.

“Progress can be easily undone, as we have seen in other places around the world,” the Prime Minister said at the start of a parliamentary sitting.

“We are only a few days away from Easter, a time that should give us great hope, and the message is clear, though: stay home, don’t travel, don’t go away. We can’t let up now.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt warned that abandoning social-distancing rules over the Easter long weekend would undo everything done to curtail the crisis.

“This Easter is the time where we can lock in the gains we have made as a country. The virus does not take a holiday,” he said.