WEDNESDAY AUG 25

Girl rescued in Greece after being swept out to sea on an inflatable unicorn, reports AP newsagency.

A young girl has been rescued by the crew from a Greek ferry after being swept out to sea on an inflatable unicorn.

The girl, reported to be aged four or five, was with her parents at a beach off the town of Antirrio in the Gulf of Corinth on the weekend when strong currents swept her away.

Video of the rescue showed the girl clutching the neck of the giant swim toy as it bobbed in the water around 800 metres from shore.

The ferry slowly approached her and captain Grigoris Karnesis positioned the vessel so the current gently pushed the girl, who was wearing inflatable arm floaties but no life jacket, toward it.

Waiting crew members plucked the girl and the toy from the water and carried them to safety.

She was reunited with her parents a short time later.

Mr Karnesis said he was travelling on his regular route when he received a call asking if he had seen a girl on an inflatable toy.

“The child was flabbergasted,” he told Skai TV.

“She was terrified, and that is why she had grabbed so firmly onto her inflatable swing ring.”

He brushed off suggestions he had done anything noteworthy, saying he only did what anyone would do.

“I’m obligated to do it, not because of the nature of my work, but as a person,” he said.

“There is no need for someone to thank me.

“I did something that any one of us would do.”

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Victoria has recorded 149 new cases of coronavirus and 24 people with COVID-19 have died, taking the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 462.

Interviewed on RN, Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the latest deaths were “overwhelmingly” linked to aged care.

Ms Mikakos said Victoria still had a “very serious situation” to deal with and defended the State Government proposal to amend legislation to allow the state of emergency to be extended by up to 12 months.

The Health Minister was pressed on whether the Government would consider a compromise which would allow a shorter extension of the state of emergency.

Today’s figures come after 148 cases were reported yesterday and 116 cases were announced on Monday — the lowest daily number of new cases in more than seven weeks.

Data released yesterday by Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Andrew Wilson showed that 70 to 80 per cent of healthcare workers who contracted coronavirus during the state’s second wave caught it at work.

The State Government previously estimated only 10 to 15 per cent of COVID-19 cases among the state’s healthcare workers had been acquired at work, saying the rest of the infections were acquired in the community.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says there have been six new coronavirus infections in her state in the 24 hours to 8.00pm yesterday.

One of them is in hotel quarantine.

Nearly 26,000 people were tested in the reporting period.

Meanwhile, Queensland has recorded one new case of coronavirus today.

The person is a close contact of an existing case and lives in Forest Lake.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the latest case was “already in quarantine and therefore not posing an ongoing infection risk to the community”.

He thanked the 20,856 Queenslanders who were tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

“The highest number in a 24-hour period we have recorded throughout the pandemic,” he said.

“To have just one of those return positive is fantastic news.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the number was a record for Queensland.

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Embattled Broncos coach Anthony Seibold has stepped down immediately to spend more time with family, saying they have made “enormous sacrifices” for him, reports the ABC.

The settlement, agreed upon yesterday between Seibold and the club’s board, was formally announced this morning.

The former coach addressed the media this morning, after an “emotional” meeting with players.

“I get judged with what happens on the field, I take responsibility for that,” he said.

“I thought it was best for the Broncos and myself that we separate.

“The final straw was hopping on a plane back from Sydney when I wanted to be with my daughter.

Anthony Seibold arrived at the Broncos club this morning before a scheduled press conference.(ABC News: Tim Swanston)

“From a professional viewpoint, this was the hardest decision I have ever made.

“Right now, I want to spend more time with my family. They have made enormous sacrifices for me in recent times.”

Seibold said he had decided last week to end his tenure and a meeting was held with chairman Karl Morris.

Broncos chief executive Paul White said while Seibold had been in home isolation after travelling interstate, he reflected on his role at the club “and the impact it is having on his life away from rugby league”.

“The role as coach of the Broncos is one of the most high-profile and high-pressure in Australian sport, and Anthony has performed admirably since starting in late 2018,” Mr White said.

“But the levels of scrutiny — some of it bordering on hysterical, if not slanderous in recent times — have placed a heavy burden on Anthony and his family.

“As a club, we have endeavoured to support Anthony and his loved ones through all of this.”

Mr White said he and the board were accountable for hiring Seibold, along with today’s decision for the coach to step down.

“Can we do better, could we do better? Absolutely,” he said.

“At the time there was widespread support for our decision.

“For all the right reasons that decision was made then, it hasn’t worked out.”

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Africa has been declared free of the wild poliovirus, after decades of effort.

The announcement, by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication, comes after no cases were reported for four years.

But cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the disease in more than a dozen countries.

Polio once paralysed some 75,000 children a year across the African continent.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are now the only countries thought to still have the wild poliovirus.

In both countries, vaccination efforts against the highly infectious, water-borne disease are complicated by insecurity and attacks on health workers.

African health authorities see the declaration as a rare glint of good news in Africa amid the coronavirus pandemic, an Ebola outbreak in western Congo and the persistent deadly challenges of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is just the second time a virus has