Australian police take 'black box' off cruise liner in coronavirus homicide probe
09 April, 2020
Australian police said on Thursday they took the "black box" of a cruise liner which disembarked a huge selection of passengers infected with the coronavirus in Sydney, within a homicide investigation in to the country's deadliest infection source.
The investigation got underway as the Australian authorities said the rate of new coronavirus infections hit its lowest number in three weeks and began arranging more flights to buying citizens stranded abroad.
The Ruby Princess cruise liner, owned by Carnival Corp , has turned into a flashpoint of public anger in Australia after authorities granted the ship permission to disembark its passengers last month without health checks.
Hundreds of the passengers later tested positive for the coronavirus and 15 have died, out of Australia's roughly 6,000 confirmed cases and 51 deaths.
Investigators boarded the ship at an professional port south of Sydney, interviewed the captain and took electronic logs as evidence, New South Wales (NSW) state Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said.
"They spoke to the captain of the ship, who was simply extremely helpful," Fuller said in a televised news conference on Thursday.
"Ships have a black box nearly the same as that of international planes, and that and other evidence has been seized for further investigation."
About 1,000 crew of varied nationalities stick to board the ship.
Globally, a lot more than 1.5 million people have tested positive to the coronavirus, which includes caused about 87,000 deaths.
Cases dropping
During the past day, Australia recorded 96 new coronavirus infections, its first increase of significantly less than 100 cases in three weeks, Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Canberra.
"The curve continues to flatten, we are consolidating the gains," Hunt said in a televised news conference.
"While we have been cautious during the last two weeks as we've seen the first data, what we're seeing now could be a genuine consolidation."
Authorities are imploring persons to stay home and cancel trips to traditional travel destinations over the long Easter holiday weekend and say tight restrictions on movement could stay static in place for at least half a year.
The restrictions include a broad order for folks to stay home aside from essential work or even to exercise and purchase food, and police have said they will use the risk of on-the-spot fines to avoid persons travelling or socialising over Easter.
"We can not lift our foot off the pedal, we must stay vigilant, make certain we clamp down on the community-to-community transmission," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
Berejiklian ordered a senior state lawmaker back again to his Sydney home after he was photographed by local media at his beach house beyond your city.
The premier of the island state Tasmania, Peter Gutwein, said he would use helicopters and doorknocks of suspected holiday houses to monitor people's movements.
"The gloves come off, we will police this, the time of education is over," he said.
Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said she had arranged with Qantas Airways Ltd to perform special flights to repatriate Australians stuck in foreign countries.
The flights would carry persons in Peru, Argentina and South Africa home in the next week, with flights also being planned from India and the Philippines.
Late on Wednesday, the federal government approved a package to subsidise the wages of six million people, or 25 % of the population, at a cost of A$130 billion ($81 billion).
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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