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Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the eighteenth of March. My name is Sam Kozlowski and

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Speaker 1: helping me make sense of today's news is Zara Sideline.

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Speaker 1: Making news today, Phase one B gets ready to.

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Speaker 2: Roll terror arrests in Victoria, some.

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Speaker 1: Good news about vertical consumption.

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Speaker 2: And breakdown of the evolving COVID nineteen crisis in Papua

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Speaker 2: New Guinea. Here's today's daily digest.

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Speaker 1: So yesterday the federal government launched its vaccine booking website,

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Speaker 1: established in time for Phase one B to be rolled out,

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Speaker 1: but it did not go to plan. People aged over

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Speaker 1: seventy abergeinon Terres Strait Islander, people aged over fifty five,

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Speaker 1: healthcare workers not covered in Phase one A and adults

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Speaker 1: with underlying medical conditions should be able to book an

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Speaker 1: appointment to be vaccinated from today. However, the website crashed

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Speaker 1: many times. Yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Two Victorian men and a sixteen year old boy have

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Speaker 2: been arrested by the Joint counter Terrorism Team on terror

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Speaker 2: related charges. It's in relation to a fire in Bushland

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Speaker 2: near Epping last month and an assault in the Melbourne

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Speaker 2: metro area. Police say the men were motivated by an

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Speaker 2: ideology based on religious extremism.

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Speaker 1: At least eight people have been killed in three separate

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Speaker 1: shootings at massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, after a gunman

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Speaker 1: attacked the venues. A twenty one year old male was arrested,

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Speaker 1: and while the motive is currently unknown, Atlanta's police chief

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Speaker 1: speculated it may be a hate crime targeted at Asian

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Speaker 1: Americans who have been the subject of rising levels of

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Speaker 1: hate connected to COVID nineteen.

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Speaker 2: And the good news and it is not in relation

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Speaker 2: to my throat. Despite recording one locally acquired case of

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Speaker 2: COVID nineteen, New South Wales residents will now be able

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Speaker 2: to engage in vertical consumption at indoor venues, pubs and bars,

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Speaker 2: which basically means you can stand up while drinking. New

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Speaker 2: South Wales Deputy Premier John Barrellaro for shadowed another major

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Speaker 2: announcement next Wednesday if cases remain low.

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Speaker 1: So this morning we wanted to bring you up to

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Speaker 1: speed on the evolving situation in Papua New Guinea, where

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Speaker 1: a mass COVID outbreak is putting the nation's health system

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Speaker 1: under some immense stress. You would have seen in the

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Speaker 1: headlines yesterday that Australia has stepped into help, but let's

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Speaker 1: think about what that help actually is going to look like.

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Speaker 1: So we first heard of the severity of COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: in Pupa New Guinea earlier this week when Queensland Health

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Speaker 1: authorities reported that fifty percent of the tests they had

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Speaker 1: conducted came back positive for COVID nineteen. Since then, the

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Speaker 1: WHO has identified that Papua New Guinea is facing a

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Speaker 1: high or extreme risk of community transmission. In Port Moresby's

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Speaker 1: major hospital, ninety seven percent of beds are occupied and

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Speaker 1: nineteen of the twenty one provinces are facing major community outbreaks.

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Speaker 1: This is the first time a specific neighbor of Australia

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Speaker 1: has come under such immense threat from COVID nineteen, so

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Speaker 1: it's been really interesting to see how the government has responded. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: Prime minist Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt held

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Speaker 1: a media conference where they announced a huge range of

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Speaker 1: measures that they will be exercising straight away to help

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Speaker 1: our Pacific neighbors. Firstly, they'll be sending eight thousand astrozenka

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Speaker 1: jabs to Papa New Guinea in the next week to

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Speaker 1: vaccinate frontline workers. This is seen as a really important

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Speaker 1: first step for the country as it allows the health

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Speaker 1: system to keep going. The vaccines are going to be

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Speaker 1: delivered by an osmat team, and that's basically a medical

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Speaker 1: team from Australia that's going to go in and assess

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Speaker 1: the needs of the country and identify where the Australian

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Speaker 1: government can specifically help. For now, the Australian government has

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Speaker 1: pledged to send a million surgical masks, one hundred thousand gloves,

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Speaker 1: gowns and goggles, twenty thousand face shields, one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: packages of hand sanitizer, and most importantly, two hundred non

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Speaker 1: invasive ventilators. This is critical medical infrastructure that will somewhat

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Speaker 1: assist the most vulnerable Papua New Guineans. There'd be a

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Speaker 1: few major factors the government is thinking about right now

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Speaker 1: in terms of how important it is for them to

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Speaker 1: step in in PNG. Not only is p and G

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Speaker 1: Australia's closest geographical neighbor, but the two countries have a

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Speaker 1: deep shared history of supporting each other. The thing that

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Speaker 1: comes to most people's mind here is, of course, kokoda.

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Speaker 1: The Australian government is arguing that an out of control

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen epidemic in p ANDNG would be a humanitarian

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Speaker 1: disaster for the region. P and G shares a border

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Speaker 1: with the Solomon Islands and Indonesia, so it's in Australia's

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Speaker 1: best interests. But more importantly, it's the right thing to

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Speaker 1: do to step in and help. I really enjoyed reading

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Speaker 1: the article by Jonathan Prike, who's the director of the

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Speaker 1: Pacific Islands Program at the Lowe Institute. He said, the

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Speaker 1: true test of friendship is what you do when the

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Speaker 1: chips are down. The shocking scale of p andng's COVID

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Speaker 1: nineteen outbreak means it needs critical help right now. Through

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Speaker 1: our own management of COVID nineteen, we have earned the

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Speaker 1: right to be generous. We have the chance to show

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Speaker 1: genuine leadership when it is most That's all we have

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Speaker 1: time to cover off today. But in the meantime, follow

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Speaker 1: the day's news on Instagram at the Daily OS It's

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Speaker 1: where over ninety five thousand Australians get their news throughout

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Speaker 1: the day, and we would love you to become part

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Speaker 1: of the community.