TUESDAY, MARCH 10
Another eight coronavirus infections were reported in New South Wales this morning as a Sydney doctor called for people in the state’s major population centres to be quarantined for two weeks,
Dr Cathie Hull works in the emergency department at Sydney’s Ryde Hospital, where a doctor has already tested positive to COVID-19 after returning from Iran.
She spent two weeks in self-isolation, and watched the number of cases in NSW rise sharply in that time.
With 55 confirmed coronavirus infections, NSW is responsible for more than half of Australia’s cases.
“Within the family I isolated. I didn’t see my daughter and my granddaughter,” Dr Hull said.
“I can see the importance of the isolation process and how it can buy time for us to get the health system ready to handle more cases.
“I think if everybody did it for two weeks, we might be in a better position to move on with fewer cases and to cope with the demands on the health
The eight new cases overnight brought the total number of confirmed cases in NSW up to 55, more than half of the total number of infections in Australia.
Meanwhile, Qantas says it will be reducing capacity by almost a quarter for the next six months due to fears over COVID-19.
The airline said there had been a “sudden and significant drop” in demand for flights and it must reduce the frequency of flights as well as the size of aircraft.
Eight of the airline’s A380s will be grounded and two are already undergoing scheduled maintenance which leaves only two in service.
Qantas services to London will also be re-routed, flying via Perth instead of Singapore.
Overseas, movement across Italy, which has had more than 460 deaths, .will be sharply restricted in a dramatic new clampdown aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said.
Mr Conte said anyone who wanted to travel outside the areas where they lived would need to prove they needed to do so for their work, their health or a limited number of other reasons.
“There won’t be just a red zone,” Mr Conte told reporters, referring to the lockdown in areas in northern Italy instituted over the weekend.
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The price of petrol in Australia could soon fall to around $1 a litre, economists have predicted, the ABC reports.
The impact of coronavirus had already put global oil prices under pressure, but now with Saudi Arabia starting a price war with Russia, oil stocks are getting smashed around the world.
Saudi Arabia and Russia cannot agree on how much oil should be produced, and the argument is having real-world ramifications as supplies increase dramatically.
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Domestic Violence victim Hannah Clarke and her three children have been laid to rest in a single shared coffin after family friend Fiona Cunningham opened their funeral ceremony, saying it was a time to “celebrate Hannah and her children’s lives and honour their memory”.
“Today we’re navigating the grief of losing this family under horrific circumstances,” Ms Cunningham told hundreds of mourners, including Hannah’s family, friends and dignitaries including the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“It’s their deaths that have brought us together, but it’s their lives we’re here to remember.
“This is an occasion for sorrow, but may the occasion not be wasted trying to make sense of why we are here, but rather may it be one where we are thankful for the gift of life and that our lives intersected theirs.”
Ms Clarke, 31, and her children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, were murdered when Ms Clarke’s estranged husband, the children’s father, doused them with petrol and set the car they were travelling in alight.
The children died at the scene and Ms Clarke died later in hospital from her injuries.
In the wake of the deaths there was an outpouring of grief and anger over the failure of the nation’s domestic violence system to protect families.
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