Australians Arrive For Quarantine After Weeks On Coronavirus Cruise Ship
SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than 150 Australians arrived home on Thursday to begin two weeks of quarantine after finally disembarking a cruise ship docked in Japan where more than 600 people have contracted the new coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Diamond Princess, owned by Carnival Corp, has been quarantined at Yokohama near Tokyo since February 3, initially with 3,700 people aboard - including 220 Australian holidaymakers.
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The Qantas Airways plane chartered to evacuate the Australians arrived at Darwin shortly before 10:00 am, television footage showed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 170 Australians were evacuated to Darwin, with a further 47 left in Japan after either contracting coronavirus or deciding to spend the rest of their quarantine period on the Diamond Princess.
All 170 who did evacuate were required to be symptom-free when checked by Japanese health officials prior to boarding the plane, though Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy on Wednesday said some may still have coronavirus.
After arriving at the Howard Springs quarantine facility, all Australians were again screened, said Di Stephens, acting chief health officer of the Northern Territory.
“There were six people off that plane identified as having minor sniffles and sore throat that we have separated completely, and they will be swabbed this afternoon, and those people have gone straight into an isolation area,”...
