Australia

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s most populous state recorded more than 6,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time Saturday, adding a somber note to Christmas celebrations.

New South Wales reported 6,288 new infections over the past 24 hours, an increase of 676 cases from the previous day and by far the highest number of cases in any Australian state since the pandemic began.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the state rose by six to 388, and 52 people were in intensive care.

CANBERRA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged people to "stay calm and get boosted" amid surging coronavirus infections.

Morrison on Wednesday met with state and territory leaders at the national cabinet to discuss the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in Australia.

Following the meeting, he announced that one-quarter of state-run vaccination hubs that closed after Australia hit 80 percent of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will reopen to encourage booster shot uptake.

SYDNEY, Dec 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Four people died, after a light sea plane crashed into the ocean near Brisbane, the capital city of Australia’s state of Queensland, today.

Queensland police confirmed that among the four casualties were two male adults and two children.

“The aircraft was seen to disappear behind mangroves. A short time later an aircraft in the area at the time, located the aircraft, upturned and in shallow water near the mangroves,” said local police inspector, Craig White.

MELBOURNE, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Australian officials on Sunday said there was no need to clamp down on Christmas festivities even as new COVID-19 infections climbed in Sydney, with the country's high vaccination rate helping keep people out of hospital.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said he was confident Australia would not need to follow the Netherlands, which has reimposed a strict lockdown over the Christmas and New Year period to curb the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant. 

CANBERRA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Democracy is not a one-size-fits-all product that has only one model or configuration for the whole world, a senior Chinese envoy in Australia has said in an article published on The Canberra Times on Wednesday.

"Whether a country is democratic or not should only be judged by its own people," Wang Xining, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Australia, said in the article titled "Why China's 'people's democracy' is a high-quality democracy."

SYDNEY (AP) — Christmas lights have been turned off and a candlelight vigil was held in the Australian town where five children died after falling from a bouncy castle that was lifted into the air by a gust of wind.

Three children were still in critical condition in the hospital and one child was discharged following the incident on Thursday in the island state of Tasmania. The dead included three boys and two girls aged 11 or 12.

SYDNEY (AP) — Four children died and four others were in critical condition after falling from a bouncy castle that was lifted 10 meters (33 feet) into the air by a gust of wind at a school on Australia’s island state of Tasmania on Thursday.

The school was holding a celebration to mark the end of the school year.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s government said Tuesday it plans to start making mRNA vaccines at home with a new plant that could produce up to 100 million doses each year.

The announcement came as coronavirus cases in Sydney and surrounding areas jumped, driven in part by the omicron variant.

The new factory would be built in Victoria state in a partnership between vaccine manufacturer Moderna and the federal and state governments. It is expected to open by 2024.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia and South Korea signed a $720 million defense deal Monday as South Korean President Moon Jae-in became the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began.

Worth about 1 billion Australian dollars, the deal will see South Korean defense company Hanwha provide the Australian army with artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radars.

SYDNEY/BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Australia and Britain will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, their prime ministers said on Wednesday, as other allies weighed similar moves to protest at China's human rights record.

The United States has said its government officials would boycott February's Beijing Olympics because of China's human rights "atrocities", just weeks after talks aimed at easing tense relations between the world's two largest economies.