Two Australian cruise ship evacuees diagnosed with coronavirus
Two people brought back to Australia from a cruise ship in Japan have contracted coronavirus.
Both remain well and are being housed in a separate isolation unit at Howard Springs outside Darwin, the nation's chief medical officer said on Friday.
Public health authorities from their home states are organising medical transfers for the patients and their partners.
The pair had been on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, for two weeks.
More than 620 of the passengers on the Diamond Princess liner have been infected on the ship, which has been quarantined since February 3, initially with about 3,700 people on board.
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Hundreds of relieved passengers disembarked the ship on Wednesday with 180 Australians leaving. Fifteen chose to stay in Japan, Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said.
Those who left boarded a Qantas flight to Darwin.
"No passengers will board the plane if they have any symptoms of the coronavirus or test positive, obviously, to the coronavirus," Mr Tudge said in Sydney on Wednesday.
An Australian family four is among those who have chosen to stay in Japan after one of them tested positive for the virus.
Mum Aun Na Tan revealed the news in a post to social media, explaining it was as they were pushing their bags out of their cabin that they were told their 16-year-old daughter Kaitlyn’s test from Monday was positive.
“We will not be taking the flight tonight. Our family will stay together,” one of her posts read.
with AFP, AAP and Reuters
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