Australian Baby Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Mum Became Ill

An Australian baby has tested positive for the coronavirus after his mum became ill.

South Australian health officials say the eight-month-old is in a stable condition.

The baby and his 40-year-old mum had recently returned from a trip to Iran via Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines flight MH139.

Worden Vision 420

The number of coronavirus cases South Australia is now up to seven, with a 58-year-old man also testing positive after coming back from Taiwan. The man had travelled via Brisbane before landing in Adelaide.

They are all receiving treatment at Flinders Medical Centre.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall has released a statement, saying: "Yesterday we announced that there were two further confirmed cases of coronavirus here in South Australia.

"Unfortunately, today I have to report that there are a further two cases of people living with the coronavirus here in South Australia.

PA

"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.

"We're doing this so that we can stay ahead of the spread of this disease.

"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."

Gerry Considine (Creative Commons)

The state's chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said everything that can be done to stop the spread of the virus is being undertaken by staff across South Australia.

"As you can appreciate, my team and the Department for Health and Wellbeing are very busy, because having so many cases all at once means the contact tracing is at the forefront of what they're doing today," she said.

"We had information that we provided yesterday about a 24-year-old that had a travel history, and we're just sorting through all the details of that travel history to make sure that we're doing contact tracing adequately.

"There are a number of places that young woman visited before she had the test results, and we are following through on all of those places to see if there are any cases that we need to provide direct information to."

Topics: News, coronavirus, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie