The Australian and international news stories you need to know today, Wednesday May 27.

A 30yo Queensland man dies from COVID-19.

A 30-year-old Central Queensland man tested positive for the coronavirus after he died in his home on Tuesday.

His death brings the state’s COVID-19 death toll to seven, and Australia’s total to 103.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said the man’s partner returned to their home in Blackwater about 4.30pm yesterday to find him unresponsive.

He was unable to be revived and died shortly after.

Dr Young said the man had a “complicated” medical history, and is believed to have had symptoms for several weeks, but it is not known how he contracted the virus as he had not travelled outside of Blackwater since February.

His partner is isolated in Rockhampton hospital displaying symptoms but an initial test for the virus was negative, Dr Young said.

“I ask that everyone in Blackwater, if you have any symptom at all, to come forward and be tested,” she said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the man’s death was a reminder that the virus was still in the community.

“Blackwater has never had a case of COVID before,” she said.

“Contact tracing is extensively underway. The police and ambulance officers who attended the scene are also now in quarantine.”

Two Sydney schools closed due to COVID-19.

Two private schools in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have closed after positive coronavirus cases were discovered.

Waverley College and Moriah College both confirmed on Tuesday the schools had closed after students tested positive to COVID-19, as the state recorded just two new cases.

Waverley College, where a year seven boy tested positive, was evacuated within 90 minutes of learning about the case, a spokeswoman told AAP. The school reopened last Monday.

Moriah College closed about midday after it received confirmation from NSW Health that a pupil, who was on campus on May 21, had tested positive to COVID-19.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the absentee rate at NSW schools on Monday was 14 per cent, only marginally higher than the average 10 per cent rate.

15 new cases were added to the national coronavirus infection tally yesterday.

Live export ship brings coronavirus to WA.

Fremantle port workers may have been exposed to COVID-19, when they boarded an infected live export ship that had apparently been cleared by a federal department to dock, despite knowing some of the crew were ill.

But the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment insists it only found out some crew members had fever after the vessel reached port.

The Al Kuwait arrived on Friday, after sailing from the United Arab Emirates and six of the 48 multinational crew have since tested positive.

WA Premier Mark McGowan says the workers are being isolated and contact tracing is under way. He says he doesn't want to "point fingers at this point in time" but state authorities are working to find out what went wrong.

The six new cases bring the number of active cases in WA to 12, after a Victorian family returned from Qatar with the disease on May 17.

Australia hosting first human vaccine trials.

The first Australian human trials of a coronavirus vaccine are about to kick off with more than 100 volunteers.

The trials, which are being overseen by US biotechnology company Novavax, will take place in Melbourne and Brisbane with 131 healthy adults aged between 18 and 59 years.

Infectious diseases expert, Dr Paul Griffin from Brisbane's Mater Health Services, is one of the researchers overseeing the phase one clinical trials, which are the first step in human testing.

We could have a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of the year, that’s according to the researchers spearheading the first human trials of a promising new treatment kicking off in Melbourne today. Could this be the shot in the arm the world has been waiting for? pic.twitter.com/tO6TTRUfeH

— The Project (@theprojecttv) May 26, 2020

"It is very exciting," he told Nine's Today Show. "Healthy volunteers will receive this vaccine for the first time and it's predominantly about safety. So we will carefully monitor them throughout."

Novavax expects to have some results to share in July and that could pave the way for phase two trials to look at the impact on people with coronavirus and side effects.

If all goes well, it could be ready for use by the end of the year.

About a dozen experimental vaccines are in the early stages of testing, or due to start, in China, the US and Europe.

Scott Morrison will not consider taking a pay cut.

Scott Morrison will not reconsider taking a temporary pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic.

The prime minister is sticking with a wage freeze that applies to all Commonwealth public servants.

Mr Morrison was on Tuesday asked whether he might take a hip-pocket hit to show Australians "we're all in this together", as he often declares.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not reconsider taking a temporary pay cut during the #coronavirus pandemic, and says he plans to "just keep doing a good job". #9News

More: https://t.co/8flOQLDE3W#9News #AusPol #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/SPSR2H2fV7

— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) May 26, 2020

"I have no plans to make any changes to those arrangements," he told the National Press Club in Canberra.

"I'll just keep doing a good job, that's my plan, and I will be accountable to Australians for that job."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her ministers have taken a 20 per cent pay cut for six months to show solidarity with those affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

More than one million JobSeeker claims have been processed since the virus smashed the Australian economy, while 3.5 million workers have been forced onto JobKeeper wage subsidies.

Trump invites world leaders to America in June.

US President Donald Trump believes there would be "no greater example of reopening" than holding a summit of Group of Seven leaders in his country near the end of June.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany says the goal is for the summit to be held at the White House and world leaders who attend would be protected.

Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, has said an in-person summit would be a symbol of the US and other countries seeking to return to normal, something the president has urged should happen quickly, despite concerns from public health experts.

In March, the US president cancelled the physical summit scheduled for June, moving to a video conference.

The leaders' April and May discussions were also moved to teleconference.

The G7 is made up of the US, Italy, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Britain and the EU.

More than 1.6 million cases of the highly contagious novel coronavirus have been reported in the US and its territories.

Brazen theft of man in a wheelchair in Sydney.

A man has been charged with stealing from a man in a wheelchair in Sydney's CBD.

42-year-old Julian Stewart, who has cerebral palsy, was robbed by two men after withdrawing cash from a George St ATM about 11.45am on Sunday.

 

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Screw these absolute scumbags robbing this poor guy when using an ATM - if you know these dickheads report them to NSW police... Disgusting

A post shared by DYLAN ALCOTT (@dylanalcott) on May 25, 2020 at 10:05pm PDT

Police allege one of the pair snatched the cash out of the victim's hand and ran away with the other man.

A 20-year-old Sanctuary Point man was arrested about 3.15pm yesterday and charged with stealing. Police continue to hunt for the second man.

"I'm a disabled pensioner, and life's a bit of a struggle - you should worry about helping people - not doing that to them," Julian told Nine.

Melbourne principal to be extradited to Australia over child sexual abuse.

A former Melbourne principal facing 74 charges of child sex abuse, who fled Australia 12 years ago, is fit to be extradited, an Israeli court has ruled.

Sisters Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper first filed police complaints against Malka Leifer in 2011.

The sisters' statements totalled 74 charges of rape and child abuse stemming from her time as principal of Melbourne's Ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School.

After allegations of sexual abuse arose against Leifer, the school where she worked bought her tickets and flew her to Israel where she has remained ever since.

Around the world.

- The Americas have emerged as the new coronavirus epicentre, registering more than 2.4 million cases and 143,000 deaths.

The current COVID-19 figures.

- JK Rowling has published a new story called The Ickabog, which will be free to read online to help entertain children and families stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

- UK health officials are urging COVID-19 survivors to donate their blood plasma, as a major trial looks into whether the donations can be transfused to patients struggling to develop their own immune response.

- "High value foreigners" behind the sequel to Hollywood blockbuster Avatar, are among hundreds who have been quietly let into New Zealand under little known exemptions to its closed border regime.

- An Australian SAS operator is under investigation for killing an Afghan man, his comrades say was an unarmed and intellectually disabled civilian, the ABC reports.

- With AAP

Feature image: Getty.