Six Australians evacuated from cruise ship are diagnosed with coronavirus
Six people evacuated to Darwin from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for coronavirus, authorities have confirmed.
Two people from Victoria tested positive to the infection on Saturday and will be repatriated to their home state's health system.
On Friday night, two Queensland women aged 54 and 55 tested positive for the infection after leaving the ship on Thursday and will be flown to a Brisbane hospital on Saturday for further treatment.
Earlier, two other Australians were conformed to have contracted the disease.
A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth on Friday. His wife was to travel with him but then be isolated at home for two weeks.
A 24-year-old woman from South Australia has been transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Under the evacuation deal state governments agreed to treat any patients in their home states.
Before the medical transfers chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said they were in a clinically "reasonable" condition.
The two were among a group of six who were suffering a sore throat and runny nose after arriving at the former workers camp at Howard Springs on Thursday.
The other four have been cleared of the virus, but Professor Murphy said that could change.
"It's possible more people could develop positive tests over the next few days. We don't know that, but if they do we are completely we’ll set up to detect and manage them and isolate them," he told reporters on Friday.
There were 170 Australians on the evacuation flight. They will be quarantined at the facility near Darwin for two weeks after leaving the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama.
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They are being kept separate from the 266 people who were already in quarantine at Howard Springs, who were evacuated earlier this month from the epicentre of the virus at Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province.
They will leave on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Australia has extended its ban on foreign travellers from China for another week as the number of coronavirus infections and deaths in Hubei province grows.
The ban is due to end on February 29 but is under ongoing consideration from the national security committee of cabinet.
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