Daily News Roundup

April 27, 2021

 

TUESDAY APRIL 27

When doing your grocery shop it can be hard not to think of all the times your supermarket trolley has been used.

And while all Australian supermarkets have stepped up their cleaning game since the coronavirus pandemic began last year, a new device at Woolies has got clean freak customers excited, reports news.com.

News.com says Woolworths is trialling a trolley disinfector machine at its Oran Park store in Sydney, installing the device there earlier this month.

In a now-viral TikTok video shared by @sezzarellaruby, Sarah showed the trolley cleaner in action, describing it as “like a car wash, only free”.

To use it all Sarah had to do was push the trolley inside the machine and then press a button to let the sanitising spray do its thing.

The video, which has since been viewed more than 1.2 million times, also attracted hundreds of comments from shoppers who wished they had the cleaner at their supermarket.

“I love this! Those trolleys are never cleaned, sit outside and then we put food in them? I was hoping we would get this one day,” one person commented.

“How cool! We need one of these at our Woolies!” another said.

But others pointed out the trolley shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to other hygiene and social distancing measures.

“I like the idea but everyone is touching the same button to turn it on,” one person said.

A Woolworths spokeswoman told news.com.au the trolley disinfectant unit was part of the supermarket’s COVIDsafe program.

“As a food retailer, we already have very high standards of cleaning and hygiene in our supermarkets including the thorough cleaning of high touchpoint areas including shopping trolleys,” she said.

As part of our COVIDsafe program we are trialling a bespoke customer trolley disinfectant unit at our Oran Park store, which enables customers to push a trolley into a dedicated standalone unit where it is sprayed with disinfectant.

By completing the cleaning process in under two seconds, the initiative is proving very popular with customers looking for a fast and efficient way to clean their trolleys.”

While the trolley cleaner was only a trial so far Woolworths said it would “closely monitor customer feedback over the coming weeks”

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If you look up later tonight, you’ll see a beautiful full moon as it makes its closest approach to Earth this month — aka a supermoon.

In North America, the April full moon is known as a “pink” moon.

It’s not actually pink in colour — according to folklore, it’s named after the first pink flower of the season.

While the Moon will look full all night, in astronomy the full moon happens at a specific point in time when the Moon is directly opposite the Sun (syzygy).

This year, the full moon falls just after midday today in all states except Western Australia, where it falls at 11:00am.

Then, 12 hours later, it comes within 357,378 kilometres from Earth (perigee).

As perigee happens within 24 hours of a full moon, it’s also a “supermoon”, according to one interpretation of the term that was coined by an astrologer.

Astronomers prefer to call this type of event a perigee-syzygy moon.

The full moon will look spectacular from the moment it rises.(Getty Images: RugliG)

Whatever you want to call it, it will look big and beautiful from the moment it rises.

“The astronomical full moon is 12 hours away from perigee, but to the casual observer it makes no difference,” amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave told the ABC.

“The moon that will be rising on the evening of the April 27 will be a full moon.

“It doesn’t matter that the astronomical full moon was earlier.”

As the moon rises above the horizon, it will look spectacularly big — but not because it’s a supermoon.

“People see a moon on the horizon and think, ‘Oh, wow! Look the Moon’s so big.’ No, it’s not, it’s just an illusion,” Dr Musgrave says.

If you want to see the moon at its closest point, you will need to wait until just before or after midnight (depending on your time zone).

“As [the Moon] is getting closer and closer to perigee, it’s getting bigger and bigger as the night goes on.”

Time zone  Perigee
AEST 1:22am April 28
ACST 12:52am April 28
AWST 11:22pm April 27

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Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews says Australia has an obligation to support the 8,000 Australians stranded in India, which is suffering a devastating new coronavirus outbreak.

Senior government ministers are meeting today to discuss how to help the struggling country navigate a record wave of COVID infections. 

The Indian health system is at breaking point from the country’s second deadly COVID-19 wave, with horrific scenes of overwhelmed hospitals, unable to cope with the rush of patients.

Some people are dying in the streets while waiting to be seen by a doctor, and oxygen supplies are critically low.

So far, more than 17 million people in India have contracted coronavirus. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will today convene a meeting of the National Security Committee of Cabinet to discuss any assistance for India, as well as any extra steps that may need to be taken to minimise the risk of infections spreading to Australia.

Photos from New Delhi show bodies burning atop piles of wood in car parks amid mass cremations, after 306 people die of COVID-19 in 24 hours in India’s capital.

Ms Andrews, who sits on the committee, has told Channel Nine the meeting will consider how to help the 8,000 Australians in India who are trying to return.

“Our primary responsibility is to keep Australians safe and secure, so that is our overarching responsibility,” she said. 

“We do have obligations though to make sure that we can support Australians to come back home.”

Last week, National Cabinet announced there would be a 30 per cent reduction in flights from India — both commercial and government-organised repatriation flights — after a spike in cases in returned travellers.

Meanwhile, the head of South Australia’s Indian association says members are hearing terrible stories from loved ones grappling with the pandemic in India, but are supportive of calls for the Australian government to close its border with the COVID–19-ravaged nation.

It comes as some international flights into Adelaide will be redirected this week to avoid the state’s medi-hotel for positive patients reaching capacity.

Indian Australian Association of South Australia president Amarjit Grewal said the community was fearful for family and friends but would support the Australian government if it decided to close its borders with India.

“The way that things are at this stage in India, if the Commonwealth makes that decision we will support that, because that is for our community in Australia that we need to look after as well,” Mr Grewal said.

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