Article: No coronavirus cases from community transmission in two weeks, NSW Health confirm

Context:

New South Wales has recorded 31 new coronavirus cases in the past 2 weeks, but all these new cases have been in returned international travellers. Returned international travellers are forced to spend 14 days in quarantine (in 5-star hotel rooms) before being let loose on the Australian populace. So, these cases are not contributing to the pandemic in Australia's population.

New South Wales, the most populous state in Australia, has achieved zero community transmission. Most other states and territories have already achieved this, or are very close to achieving it.

The worst state in Australia for community transmission is Victoria, which has 1 or 2 cases of community transmission turn up every couple of days.

On another note, there are reportedly 432 active cases of coronavirus infections across Australia (or 450, depending on the source). However, that number of active cases exceeds the total number of new infections recorded across the country for the past month. I believe it's likely that some health departments (notably NSW's) are failing to follow up recovered cases, so that recoveries are understated and active cases are overstated.

Elimination of the coronavirus in Australia was tantalisingly close leading up to the protests last weekend. We're still waiting to see the outcome of those.

Fingers crossed!

Yesterday, the Australian government announced it will pay back $721m as it scraps Robodebt for Centrelink welfare recipients.

But the class action lodged against the robodebt scheme will continue, because "the Government still needs to answer to claims of compensation and claims of damages and inconvenience and distress that this system has caused".

Key points:

• A clay pipe found in a bottle dump in Launceston appears to show one of the earliest recorded European depictions of a Tasmanian tiger

• It is believed to be at least 190 years old and handcrafted out of river clay by a local

• Adding to the mystery of the pipe is the depiction of a kookaburra, which were were not introduced to Tasmania until 1902

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-08/rare-clay-pipe-depicts-tasmanian-tiger/12215284

250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern coast. His crew first spotted the Australian mainland on 11th April 1770, and they left Australian waters after taking possession of the continent in the name of King George III on 22nd August.

This was not the first visitation of Australia by Europeans. That honour goes to Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in his ship the Duyfken in 1606. Dutch & Portuguese sailors & traders continued to visit the north and west coasts for the next couple of centuries. They called the continent "New Holland".

But Cook represented the first European power to assume possession of the continent. 18 years later, the English sent their First Fleet of convict ships to the land of New South Wales.

250 years since Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his legacy remains fraught

What Australians often get wrong about our most (in)famous explorer, Captain Cook

For Indigenous people, Cook's voyage of 'discovery' was a ghostly visitation