Two cruise ship passengers to be medevaced from Darwin
Two people evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan will be medevaced out of Darwin and flow to their home states after contracting the virus.
The two cases, which involve a younger and older Australian, are the first to be confirmed in more than a week. State health authorities are expected to announce where the pair will be returning to on Friday afternoon.
The evacuees who sat next to the two Australians on board the Qantas evacuation flight out of Japan are now being closely monitored by health authorities in Darwin. The confirmed cases have cold-like symptoms at this stage.
A high-risk cohort of evacuees who had contact with other confirmed cases on board the Diamond Princess, who have been left behind in Japan, were separated from other passengers on the flight home and will also be regularly tested.
Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said given the more than 600 infections on the ship before it was evacuated, the government was preparing for more confirmed cases. 164 Australians were evacuated from the vessel on Thursday and will now spend the next fortnight in quarantine at the Howard Springs mining camp outside Darwin.
"Because of what has been happening over the past week it is possible that more people could develop positive tests over the next few days," he said. "We are completely well prepared to manage that. "
Passengers disembark the quarantined Diamond Princess. Credit:Getty Images
Dr Murphy said the coronavirus was a "highly transmissible disease" that seemed to be "significantly more infectious than influenza and certainly more than SARS". "Fortunately, the current evidence does not suggest that it is as severe," he said.
The virus has infected 76,199 people world-wide and killed 2247. 18,177 people have recovered.
Dr Murphy said there was evidence that the infection rate outside of the centre of the epidemic in China was slowing. The trend opens the door to a potential relaxation of the travel ban after February 29 to allow some of the 100,000 Chinese international students trapped outside of Hubei province to enter.
"That is a a risk benefit thing that government will have to consider," said Dr Murphy. "At the moment our advice is that it should be maintained and reviewed in the next seven days."
Excluding the cruise ship, South Korea, Japan and Singapore now have the highest number of cases outside of mainland China. South Korea has confirmed 104 infections - the city of 2.5 million people with the most infections, Daegu, was put into a partial lock-down on Friday.
Japan has now confirmed 84 infections, with health authorities focussing on the transmission of the disease on board a party boat in Tokyo.
Dr Murphy said it was "too early" to speculate what impact the virus might have on the Tokyo Olympics due to start in July, but any country in which there was a rapid increase in infections was a "concern".
Cruise ship giant P&O cancelled its Pacific Explorer cruise for up to 2000 travellers from Singapore to Sydney on Friday due to the coronavirus.
"Operating uncertainty is increasing in Asia involving travel restrictions, port closures and potential for more with the regional response to coronavirus," a spokesman said in a statement.
Dr Murphy said he had been in contact with cruise liners.
"The cruise industry has already decided not to take on any passengers who have come from mainland China," he said. "I will leave it up to them to make their commercial decisions."
with Anthony Galloway