THURSDAY, May 7
Queensland will ease COVID-19 contact restrictions from Mother’s Day to allow up to five family members from a household to meet with a relative this Sunday.
“We don’t think that will increase risk. It’s about one household going to another household,” Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young said.
“If you’ve got different households coming together, try to keep that social distance.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned, however, that the state’s social-distancing shutdown will not be eased again before Mother’s Day.
The Premier said NSW needed to observe the “cumulative” effects of previous restrictions being lifted.
Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Mother’s Day move was because “Queensland has been doing such a great job”.
“I really want to thank Queenslanders for a great job that they have been doing right across our state and I think this is going to be welcomed by families, especially on Mother’s Day, starting this Sunday,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Dr Young said there were two new cases of COVID-19 confirmed overnight, and that 4,665 Queenslander had been tested in the past 24 hours.
She said Queensland only had 50 active cases, eight of whom were in hospital.
The Queensland Chamber of Commerce wants the State Government to launch a “recovery action plan” that would see regional areas reopened soon.
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Four mine workers are fighting for life and a fifth is in a serious condition in the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital after an underground “gas” blast at a central Queensland coalmine.
The workers, who all have extensive burns, were flown to Brisbane overnight in a complex medical evacuation involving five planes.
Four remain in a critical condition and had to be ventilated to help them deal with damage to their airways, the ambulance service said. The fifth is serious but stable
QAS Operations Manager Doug Buchanan said due to the men’s injuries they had to be flown in separate aircraft with doctors and nurses treating them.
Three are aged in their 40s and two are in their 50s.
They have “significant” upper torso and airway burns.
The explosion occurred at the Grosvenor coalmine at Moranbah in central Queensland on Wednesday afternoon, with the mining union saying a gas ignition along the coalface appears to be to blame.
Doug Buchanan from the Queensland ambulance service said teams of nurses and doctors worked on the men as they were flown from the Moranbah hospital to Brisbane.
Four of the men “required urgent specialist care for their repatriation”, he said. Those men were critical, with the fifth victim in serious condition.
Mine operator Anglo American has evacuated the worksite, and all other employees have been accounted for.
The mine will remain closed on Thursday as inspectors work out what happened.
Queensland mines minister, Anthony Lynham, said two mine inspectors had already been on site, with two more due to arrive on Thursday.
The CFMEU said union safety inspectors are attending the site and will undertake a thorough, independent investigation into what caused a possible “ignition of gas on the longwall face”.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have marked their son’s first birthday by posting a video of Meghan reading to a beaming Archie.
With her son in her lap and proud father Harry behind the camera, Meghan holds the classic children’s tale Duck! Rabbit! – one of Archie’s favourite books.
Meghan Markle reads a book to son Archie on the occasion of his first birthday on the #SAVEWITHSTORIES Instagram page.Source:Instagram
Archie has rarely been seen in public and in the footage he smiles and grips the pages of the story, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, which playfully asks whether an ambiguous image is a duck or a rabbit.
The video was posted on Save the Children UK’s Instagram page in support of the charity’s Save with Stories campaign, which aims to raise funds for children and families struggling due to the coronavirus crisis in the UK and around the world.
The young royal sports a full head of hair and is wearing a T-shirt in the video, which is thought to have been recorded in America where Meghan and Harry are observing the Covid-19 lockdown.
The couple have made Los Angeles their home and they and other residents of California have been living under a “stay-at-home” order made by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
America is where they plan to bring up their son after walking away from the royal family in order to become financially independent, after their hopes of earning money while still supporting the Queen were ruled out.
Archie has experienced an eventful 12 months since he was born at London’s Portland Hospital – first living in a cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, then an exclusive home on Vancouver Island in Canada, and now in the sprawling metropolis known as the City of Angels.
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