Hello Mustafa Rashwani , the first Friday of the year is with you which will bring the first wave of this year's covid numbers.
The deployment of the XBB.1.5 variant discovered in Australia will be focused on and the extent of its spread will be monitored by authorities. While there is no evidence that the new variant is more powerful than previous iterations, the World Health Organization has expressed concern over the ease with which XBB.1.5 can be shared.
Elsewhere, after filtering out the details, we finally get to see the 2022 Population Report in full , with all the details added together to provide a compelling picture of the future of the population. We already know we are ageing, Melbourne is on course to overtake Sydney, and growth is slowing due to the pandemic; The full picture should be raised today.
On the Gold Coast, a young Sydney man remains in a coma following a fatal helicopter crash earlier this week . Nicholas Tadros, 10, was in the helicopter at takeoff and is in critical condition.
Traffic rules have been relaxed to allow emergency supplies to be delivered to north- western Australia , as the region faces the worst flooding. Emergency evacuations continued in the Kimberley yesterday as a small area of Nonkanpah on the top of the Fitzroy River was flooded.
It was the worst flooding the state had seen, Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson told reporters as helicopters spent the day pulling people from roofs:
People in the Kimberley have endured centuries-old floods, some of the worst ever seen in Western Australia.
This situation is constantly evolving and very difficult.
Stay tuned as we tell you more about it, and whatever else is going on in this country.
