Biosecurity officers to board China to Darwin flights on arrival

Biosecurity officers will be boarding planes once China to Darwin flights have landed to ensure travellers are aware of possible symptoms and risks of the international coronavirus outbreak, NT Airports have said.

A health worker checks the temperature of a man entering the subway on Sunday in Beijing, China. Picture: Betsy Joles/Getty Images

• NT Health’s coronavirus plan

Biosecurity officers will be boarding planes once China to Darwin flights have landed to ensure travellers are aware of possible symptoms and risks of the international coronavirus outbreak, NT Airports have said.

On Monday afternoon the coronavirus death toll in China had risen sharply to 80 – up 24 in a matter of hours – as NSW confirmed a fifth case.

An NT Airports spokesman said biosecurity officers were boarding direct China fights once they had landed and handing out information to people with sweats or chills.

“We have people available at the airport to interview people who are feeling unwell,” he said.

The spokesman also said they were asking airlines to make public health announcements in terminal building for all arriving flights.

“(We are) asking all arriving passengers, any passengers that if they do have any symptoms to alert a biosecurity officers,” he said.

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With fears of being caught up in the virus, Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has rescheduled flights home from his holiday in China, despite his holiday location Fujian being 800km away from where the virus originated in Wuhan City.

“Me and my wife decided to come home earlier to avoid any possible problems, we are taking precautions … we are feeling healthy,” he said.

As fear of the coronavirus and other infections grows, please this short video is for the attention of doctors, health workers and the general public.

How to properly put on and remove the appropriate face mask. pic.twitter.com/KLP5BZwBYV

— Ikenna Onwuekwe (@onwuekweio) January 26, 2020

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“Our flights come from Shenzhen, they have (reworded) the medical emigration form here saying ‘have you been to Wuhan in the last 40 days’, they are really trying to eradicate it as early as possible.”

Mr Vatskalis said it was weird to see the streets so empty with locals taking safety measures.

“Public gatherings have been cancelled, restaurants are empty, everyone wearing mask, that is the situation,” he said.

“You can drive comfortably around. Usually the streets are packed but now there are only two or three cars on the road. People prefer to stay in their houses.”

Northern Territory Seafood Council chief executive Ms Katherine Winchester said while it was early days, she didn’t expect the virus to have an impact on the NT seafood industry as it had in South Australia.

“I understand the vast majority of Northern Territory seafood is sold on the domestic market and of the few members that do export product to China, the volumes are low,” she said.

“While market impacts are unfortunately expected to affect high value products such as lobster and abalone, which the NT doesn’t produce, we are keen to better understand any NT market impacts as (and if) they develop.”