Australians airlifted from coronavirus-hit ship arrive in Darwin

Some 170 Australian passengers evacuated after two weeks in quarantine on a Covid-19-hit cruise ship off Japan have arrived in the northern Australian city of Darwin, Qantas confirmed.

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The special flight arrived Thursday morning with the passengers who were stuck on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has been quarantined in a Japanese port for two weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

The evacuees will spend a further 14 days in quarantine in a disused workers’ camp some 30 kilometres from the city, where there more than 260 Australians are already being kept after being evacuated from Wuhan, the epicentre of the crisis in central China. 

The cruise ship evacuees, who according to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne were 170, will be kept separate from the Wuhan evacuees. 

Payne said on Twitter that her department will continue supporting Australians in Japan, including those who have now tested positive for Covid-19.  

Some 180 people had signed up to take the government-organized flight, but 10 people were told at the last minute they could not leave because they had tested positive to the coronavirus, which killed over 2,000 people in China. 

The number of cases of the virus confirmed among the 3,700 passengers on the ship stood at 621, including 36 Australians. The vessel is moored in the port of Yokohama near Tokyo.

Meanwhile Australia, which has seen 15 confirmed cases of the disease, is expected to announce extending its China travel ban for the fourth week on Thursday.