An eight-month-old baby boy is the latest person in South Australia to be diagnosed with the concerning coronavirus. The diagnosis comes just one day after his mum also tested positive and after a recent trip to Iran.
At this stage, both the mum and her baby are in a stable condition in the Flinders Medical Centre (FMC). The mother and her infant had travelled to Australia from Iran via Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines flight MH139. The boy is the 6th person in South Australia to contract the virus.
In addition to the little boy, another South Australian has also tested positive for COVID-19 – a 58-year-old-man who arrived in Adelaide from Taiwan on Tuesday.
New coronavirus clinic opens in Adelaide
SA Health today opened a dedicated clinic for coronavirus patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Currently they are awaiting test results for 14 people.
Premier Stephen Marshall said he wanted to make sure South Australians felt assured the State Government was doing what it could to stay in front of the disease.
“One of the things that we are doing, is today, we are standing up a dedicated clinic so that we can have the rapid assessment and testing of people who may be thinking that they have contracted the coronavirus,” he said.
“We see these images of what’s occurring around the world … I’m very grateful to the team at SA Health for the work they’ve done over the past weeks, identifying the potential issues, the potential for an escalation in South Australia, and getting ahead of the game.”
Childcare centre also on alert for coronavirus
We could be seeing several more confirmed cases of coronavirus in infants and children after 17 children from a childcare centre came into contact with three residents of a nursing home who have since tested positive.
The Banksia Cottage childcare children visited the nearby Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility on February 24. Since then three residents and carer at the nursing home have tested positive for coronavirus, with one of the residents dying from the infection on Tuesday night.
Current Coronavirus Australia statistics
Coronavirus continues to worry the world with more and more confirmed cases cropping up in Australia and around the globe. According to health.gov.au
As of 5 March 2020, health reports confirm there are 52 cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), including 2 deaths in Australia.
- 22 in New South Wales
- 1 in Northern Territory
- 8 in Queensland
- 4 in South Australia
- 1 in Tasmania
- 6 in Victoria
Further details:
- 15 of the initially reported cases in Australia all had a direct or indirect travel history to Wuhan, China.
- 10 cases associated with the Diamond Princess cruise ship repatriation flight from Japan. 1 of the Diamond Princess repatriated cases sadly died.
- 12 cases are reported to have had a direct or indirect travel history to Iran.
- 4 of these cases associated with an aged care facility in NSW and the remaining 2 cases reported as health care workers at other health care facilities in NSW. 1 aged care facility resident in NSW has sadly died.
- The source of infection for 3 cases is currently under investigation.
- Of the total cases reported, 22 of these cases are reported to have recovered.
For more information on coronavirus, please see our recent story on talking to your kids about coronavirus.
