Coronavirus: Christmas Island isolation starting to take its toll

Among the Australian evacuees on Christmas Island there is relief but also tension. People are hoarding food. Tempers are flaring.

An evacuee girl plays outdoors on Christmas Island on Friday. Picture: Colin Murty

It is day five in quarantine on Christmas Island and the fruit is coming.

This is big news behind the wire, in what is a slowed-down and small world for the 273 Australians who were plucked from corona­virus-plagued Wuhan on Monday and Tuesday.

If they remain virus-free, the first arrivals will be free to leave on Monday week, 14 days after they went into isolation. Another 35 Australian citizens and permanent residents who arrived on Thursday via New Zealand will be ­released the next day.

The medical team sent a sample from one evacuee to the Australian mainland for a coronavirus test on Friday. While two evacuees were earlier tested for other ­viruses, this was the first time medical staff had called specifically for a coronavirus test.

Among the detained group, there is gratitude and relief but also tension. People are grabbing and hoarding food. Tempers are flaring.

An army officer in a face mask delivered strawberries to the Blue Compound of the Christmas ­Island detention centre with evening meals on Thursday and a ­frenzy followed.

“People tended to run for what they like,” Sydney father of two Yan Zhang told The Weekend Australian.

“I have told people today that they must be on a queue to pick up food, and only pick up what they can eat in one time, not store food in their rooms.”

Professor Zhang, who moved to Australia from Wuhan in 1990, considers himself mentally strong and he says conditions in the centre are not bad.

But less than a week inside the centre that once held 2700 men has made him think about their plight. Indefinite detention would have been so much different, he said, but he could see that even evacuees who knew their release date were struggling.

Washing day: Wuhan evacuees at North West Point detention centre, Christmas Island. Picture Colin Murty

“I can understand. I think in here it is easy to get depressed for some people,” he said.

Dan Holmes, the doctor overseeing the hastily arranged quarantine station, is locked in with the evacuees in the detention centre that was once the scene of fiery riots and self-harming. He and his team are worried about boredom among evacuees, especially for the almost 100 children.

“We have strongly advised parents that their children do not play with any child outside their family, as difficult as that is,” Dr Holmes said. “The first challenge is going to be maintaining those good ­behaviours, I think everyone recognises it is in their interests.”

His team goes to each evacuees’ door each morning to carry out a basic health check. So far there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Australian Border Force took control of the detention centre on Monday. It is now staffed by military personnel and the Australian Medical Assistance Team, led by Dr Holmes.

The island is stunningly beautiful but has few of the amenities that mainland towns take for granted. Fresh food is so scarce and expensive that residents have pooled their resources to fly in their own supplies from an IGA supermarket in Perth every fortnight.

Dr Holmes and his team is trying to make life in quarantine more tolerable. It sourced an electric keyboard for a girl who is studying piano, and arranged for evacuees with pre-existing health conditions to talk on the phone to their regular doctors.

And Professor Zhang reports happily that more fruit is due to ­arrive on Saturday.