Another batch of stranded Australians are preparing to be evacuated from the epicentre of the coronavirus in China to New Zealand after more than 200 citizens and residents were taken to Christmas Island overnight.
None of the Christmas Island arrivals have so far shown any signs of having the deadly virus, but they will spend 14 days in quarantine to ensure they pose no health risk.
A team of specialist doctors and nurses is closely monitoring the 243 Australian evacuees, who were flown out of Wuhan in Hubei province on a Qantas flight on Monday.
They endured about 24 hours in transit, including a stop at Western Australia’s RAAF Base Learmonth, near Exmouth, before being taken on smaller aircraft to the island.
The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre is overseeing their care, and said medics on the island had reported all of the evacuees were well.
“They haven’t shown signs of the virus, and all going well, God willing, they won’t be showing signs of it and will in 14 days repatriate back home to their nation, Australia,” the centre’s executive director Len Notaras told ABC radio on Tuesday.
Professor Notaras said the evacuees were being kept in discreet clusters of family members, or friendship groups.
That would allow medics to effectively manage any emergency on the virus and guard against any widespread transmission among the evacuees.
He said the Christmas Island facility housing the group would meet all of their needs.
“I won’t say that it is a salubrious one, but it is modern, and it is clean.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 other Australians are expected to join an Air New Zealand charter flight from Wuhan to Auckland.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the flight had departed by Tuesday morning. It will stop in Hong Kong before continuing on to Wuhan.
The ministry said Chinese authorities had cleared the flight to land late on Tuesday, Wuhan time, which is early morning in New Zealand.
The flight is expected to be back in Auckland late on Wednesday afternoon, New Zealand time.
The number and nationalities of passengers is yet to be confirmed, but will include New Zealanders and possibly Pacific Islanders too.
New Zealand will quarantine its evacuees at an NZ Defence Force naval training range north of Auckland. However, it’s not clear what will happen to Australians on the Air NZ flight.
They can expect to go into quarantine, but might also be sent back to Australia – which would mean another long flight to Christmas Island.
There have been 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, and more than 17,000 cases and 360 deaths globally.
Foreign travellers who have left or passed through China will be denied entry to Australia to limit the spread of the virus.
-AAP
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