Australian police yesterday said that they have taken the “black box” of a cruise ship that disembarked hundreds of passengers infected with the novel coronavirus in Sydney, as part of a homicide investigation into the country’s deadliest infection source.
The investigation got under way as Australian authorities said that the rate of COVID-19 infections hit its lowest number in three weeks and began arranging more flights to bring home citizens stranded abroad.
The Ruby Princess cruise ship, owned by Carnival Corp, has become a flash point of public anger in Australia after authorities granted the ship permission to disembark its passengers last month without health checks.
Photo: AP / New South Wales Police Force
Hundreds of the passengers later tested positive for the coronavirus and 15 have died, out of Australia’s about 6,000 confirmed cases and 51 deaths.
Investigators boarded the ship at an industrial port south of Sydney, interviewed the captain and took electronic logs as evidence, New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Mick Fuller said.
“They spoke to the captain of the ship, who was extremely helpful,” Fuller said in a televised news conference yesterday.
“Ships have a black box very similar to that of international planes, and that and other evidence has been seized for further investigation,” he said.
About 1,000 crew members of various nationalities remain on board the cruise ship.
In the past day, Australia recorded 96 new coronavirus infections, its first increase of less than 100 cases in three weeks, Australian Minister for Health 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 over the last two weeks as we have seen the early data, what we’re seeing now is a genuine consolidation,” he added.
Authorities are imploring people to stay home and cancel trips to traditional vacation spots over the long Easter holiday weekend, and have said that tight restrictions on movement could stay in place for at least six months.
The restrictions include a broad order for people to stay at home, except for essential work or to exercise and buy food, and police have said that they would use the threat of on-the-spot fines to stop people traveling or socializing over Easter.
“We can’t lift our foot off the pedal, we need to stay vigilant, make sure we clamp down on the community-to-community transmission,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
Berejiklian ordered a senior state lawmaker back to his Sydney home after he was photographed by local media at his beach house outside the city.
Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein said that he would use helicopters and inspections of suspected vacation homes to monitor people’s movements.
“The gloves come off, we are going to police this, the period of education is over,” he said.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said that she had arranged with Qantas Airways to run special flights to repatriate Australians stuck overseas.
The flights would carry people 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 subsidize the wages of 6 million people, or one-fourth of the population, at a cost of A$130 billion (US$81 billion).
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