THE Hunter New England Health region has recorded its first death from COVID-19, a 76-year-old man who was a passenger on the Ruby Princess.
He is one of 11 - so far - on board the ill-fated cruise ship to lose their lives to a viral pandemic that is probably still in its early stages, as authorities around the globe grapple with an invisible enemy that had last night hit more than 1.2 million people for a death toll of almost 65,000.
The 11 Ruby Princess deaths make up almost a third of the national total of 35 fatalities.
At the same time, more than 660 cases of coronavirus have been linked back to the ship, or more than 11 per cent of the 5687 confirmed cases across the country.
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The Carnival Cruise Line ship's arrival at Circular Quay, 18 days ago on Thursday, March 19, was controversial at the time.
Now, with its role as a source of so many infections - with probably more to come - the docking of the Ruby Princess has become an enormous political controversy that did not need hindsight to avoid.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller fronted the cameras yesterday to say that a criminal investigation was under way, led by a detective chief inspector from the homicide squad.
Even without the growing toll of death and illness from the Ruby Princess, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been under pressure for what her critics say is inconsistent messaging over COVID-19.
But the sequence of events that allowed 2700 passengers back into the community with only a direction to "self-isolate" needs a far broader inquiry than an investigation by the police, especially as Commissioner Fuller seems to have already cleared the Port Authority of NSW - and, by extension, the rest of the NSW government - of any wrongdoing.
Even if the authority was misled about the health of those on board the ship, the decision, apparently with the consent of senior health officials, caused unease at the time and has already significantly added to Australia's COVID-19 caseload.
Turning the ship around, as was reportedly the port authority's original intention, would have given the state's health authorities time to work out a plan - if time were needed - to quarantine the passengers, and the 1100 crew, more effectively.
If this debacle is to properly investigated, it will need to be done by an agency without links to the NSW government.
More generally, the coming week will be an enormous test for those nations worst hit by the coronavirus crisis, especially the US, which yesterday had more than 312,000 cases, or a quarter of the global total, and a trajectory showing no sign of slowing.
There is no room for complacency here, either.
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