By Eric Martin and Jamie O’Brien
As the number of COVID-19 cases rose nationally to 4,976 this week, Perth Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton spoke to The Record to encourage the Perth Catholic community with his prayers and offer of guidance despite the chaos.
With Churches across Perth now closed and daily and weekly Masses moved online, the Perth Catholic community and beyond are living an experience like never before in the face of the COVID-19 crises.
In the midst of the crises, Perth Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton spoke to The Record about how he believes the Perth Catholic community can effectively work through the challenges we are facing.
“Now is the time when we can draw on the opportunity to spend time with God, in prayer and contemplation, asking him for discernment and peace,” Bishop Sproxton explained.
“We can look to the saints, like Therese of Lisieux, whose relics were to come to Perth this month, and, in addition to looking after our physical and mental health, we can also look after our spiritual health, by reading and reflecting on the liturgy of the word from the Lenten weekday Masses and the ceremonies of Holy Week,” he said.
Bishop Sproxton recommended The Story of Soul, by St Therese of Lisiuex, as well as some papal encylicals like Gaudium et Spes, or Evangelium Vitae. These, in addition to many other readings, form part of the daily morning prayer.
“These, in addition resources provided by the Centre for Liturgy (see links below) can form part of a daily morning prayer,” Bishop Sproxton said.
This week Western Australia saw the number of cases of people with COVID-19 jump to 392 with the WA Department of Health reporting 114 new cases this week, as at Thursday morning 2 April.
And with the increase in diagnosed cases nationally to 4,976, the nation faces even greater social restrictions, including limiting most indoor and outdoor non-essential gathering to two people only.
According to WA Health and Welfare, the age of the cases ranged from five to 88 years old and the confirmed regional cases include one each from the South West, Wheatbelt and Goldfields and eight from the Kimberley and the Great Southern.
Of these new cases 35 cases reported overseas travel, two domestic travel and 39 from cruise ships: four cases on the Ruby Princess, one each on the Voyager of the Seas and the Ovation of the Seas, and 30 new cases related to the cruise ship Artania. The latest seven cases have not been assigned to a particular ship at this stage.
There were also 12 healthcare workers among those confirmed positive this week, including a healthcare worker on Tuesday from Broome Hospital with a history of intrastate travel. The Department of Health states that as with all new cases, contract tracing is underway.
Two of the new cases reported today include three more health care workers from Broome, one from Kununurra and one from Halls Creek.
There are currently 54 confirmed COVID-19 patients in Perth metropolitan hospitals, with 14 in ICU.
However, the number of new cases each day across Australia has decreased enough that yesterday The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health, said that he believed the nation has finally started to flatten the infection curve.
“In these most difficult of times, with these most difficult of measures that none of us had ever dreamt we would ever be involved in, you have risen to the occasion,” Mr Hunt said.
“We are seeing what I would describe as early promising signs of the curve flattening.”
“While we are making progress, and while we are now flattening the curve in the first early stages of progress, there’s more to do,” he said.
“The new measures we have just put in place, we hope will deliver more benefit.”
This good news is reflected in WA, where there were 33 new cases reported on Monday, 44 on Tuesday, nine on Wednesday and 28 today.
The number of recovered cases in WA is now 64 and to date, 15,130 Western Australians have tested negative for COVID-19, with 2,060 of these from regional WA.
Addressing the economic crisis accompanying the pandemic, the WA Government yesterday announced a $1 billion financial relief package to support families if they cannot pay their bills.
Speaking with the media outside Parliament House yesterday, Mr McGowan revealed that households will be able to apply for an interest-free payment arrangement and for late payment penalties to be waived for transfer duty, landholder duty, vehicle licence duty or land tax.
“When someone has just lost their job, the last thing I want them worrying about is paying their water or power bill,” Mr McGowan said.
Additionally, a rebate given to concession card holders, the Energy Assistance Payment, will be made available to people who have lost their job as a result of COVID-19.