Daily News Roundup

February 11, 2020

PHOTO: Gavin and Lisa Dallow on their wedding day in 2017. (Facebook: Rotary Adelaide)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11

An Adelaide mother who has been in a coma for two months after being rescued from New Zealand’s White Island volcanic eruption in December has woken up to be told that her husband and daughter died in the disaster.

Lisa Dallow suffered burns to more than half of her body in the disaster on December 9 which killed 21 people.

Her husband Gavin Dallow, 53, and her only daughter, Zoe Hosking, 15, died while visiting the island with her.

A spokesman for the family confirmed this morning that Ms Dallow had woken up from the induced coma she has been in for two months, and has been told of the deaths of her loved ones.

Ms Dallow was treated in hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand, and then Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital after the eruption.

A spokesperson for the Alfred Hospital said she was in a serious but stable condition.

Forty-seven tourists — many of them from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship — and guides were on the tiny island when the eruption occurred.

Ms Dallow has been an engineer at Santos since 1998.

Both she and her husband were heavily involved in Rotary clubs in South Australia.

They met while involved with the organisation and were married in 2017.

Zoe’s funeral has been held off until Ms Dallow could come out of her coma.

Mr Dallow’s funeral was held on January 10.

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A tropical cyclone developing in the Coral Sea and thought to be a threat to Queensland will bring more showers and big seas to Queensland’s coast later this week but is expected to remain well out to sea.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the slow-moving  cyclone, named Uesi, is currently north-north west of New Caledonia.

Senior Forecaster Matt Bass said it was moving south.

“That’s likely to drift past south-eastern Queensland offshore but still might get a few showers coming out from that over Friday,” he said.

“Winds will also pick up about the coast and swells pick up about the coast as well.

“Potentially a little bit of shower activity from Cyclone Uesi before finally over the weekend it looks like the shower activity really will calm down.”

Meanwhile, a man and a woman, who disappeared near floodwaters at Nanango in Queensland’s South Burnett region, have been found safe and well as flash flooding leads to multiple swiftwater rescues in South East Queensland.

Police said the pair were reported missing after they were spotted pushing a black Ford Falcon in floodwaters at Nanango on the Burnett Highway just after 8:00pm.

The car was later found abandoned.

Officers conducted extensive searches overnight and managed to make contact with them this morning.

Meanwhile, there were multiple swiftwater rescues overnight with another man and woman found clinging to a tree on their blow-up mattress after drifting away from their campsite in floodwaters at Morayfield, north of Brisbane.

Paramedics said they had been camping near a creek and had drifted 100 metres from their campsite near Elm Court.

Firefighters say the past week’s torrential rain has extinguished the Gospers Mountain “mega-blaze” north-west of Sydney and is on track to put out the state’s remaining fires this week.

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There are now more than 42,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in China and more than 1000 deaths, as well as 319 cases in 24 other countries.

The new figures came as news agencies said the World Health Organisation (WHO) cautioned that the spread of cases outside of China could be “the spark that becomes a bigger fire”.

Hubei province, the epicentre out the outbreak, reported 103 deaths on Monday – the most in any single day – after 91 deaths on Sunday. But the 2097 new cases was down from the previous day, when there were 2618.

It is not the first time new cases have fallen. Hubei reported 2841 cases on February 7 and 2147 the next day.

There are now more than 42,000 confirmed cases in China as well as 319 cases in 24 other countries, including one death, according to WHO and Chinese health officials.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship with 3700 passengers and crew on board remained quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, with 65 more cases detected, taking the number of confirmed cases from the Carnival Corp-owned vessel to 135.

As scientists race to develop tests and treatments, the WHO says 168 labs globally have the right technology to diagnose the virus. Companies have been struggling to find clinical virus samples needed to validate the diagnostic tests they have developed.

Worries about the coronavirus kept investors on edge with safe-havens like gold rising and the dollar hitting a four-month high against the euro on Monday.

In Europe, shares in car companies exposed to China slumped, while prices of oil, iron ore and copper fell on worries over weaker Chinese demand because of the outbreak.

Wall Street rose on optimism for corporate earnings and the economy, with the Nasdaq hitting a record high.

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