Coronavirus: Home from Hubei, evacuees set up camp

266 Australians arrived home from China’s coronavirus-plagued Hubei province and are quarantined in the Northern Territory.

Families from coronavirus-plagued Hubei disembark at an old mining camp, Manigurr-ma Village, in Howard Springs, for two weeks of quarantine. Picture: Che Chorley

Another 266 Australians are home from the coronavirus-plagued Hubei province in China and in quarantine in the Northern Territory as the deadly disease continues to spread rapidly.

Australian government chief medical officer Brendan Murphy confirmed on Sunday the latest coronavirus had officially become more deadly than SARS, which claimed the lives of 774 people in 2002 and 2003.

By late Sunday, the coronavirus that almost certainly came from bats and took hold in Wuhan, China, had killed 813 ­people worldwide.

In Australia, the number of people diagnosed with the virus since its outbreak last month ­remained steady at 15. Of those ­people, 10 were in a stable condition, three were well and two had been declared fully recovered.

There were 37,553 reported cases of coronavirus worldwide on Sunday at 3pm AEDT, including just over 250 exported cases in 25 countries.

Professor Murphy said the growth in the number of cases was significant and continued, particularly in Hubei. He said the seven infected Australians from a cruise liner remained in the care of health authorities in Japan.

“It’s lucky they are in Japan ­because they have a wonderful health system like ours,” he said.

Australia’s second evacuation flight from Wuhan landed in Darwin on Sunday morning.

The Qantas Boeing 747-400 took off from Sydney just before noon on Friday to fly to Hong Kong and then on to the Chinese city crippled by the coronavirus.

The Wuhan leg of the humanitarian mission was delayed pending approvals from the Chinese government.

Among the 266 evacuees who touched down in the Northern Territory on Sunday were 92 children, who were each given gift bags containing toys.

The evacuees were taken on buses to an old mining camp at Howard Springs, 30km from Darwin, known as Mani­gurr-ma Village, for two weeks of quarantine.

They were taken to the work camp because Christmas Island’s detention centre was deemed full for the purposes of quarantine. There were 273 men, women and children there on Sunday night. They arrived there on two flights from Wuhan, one that landed first at the West Australian airbase of Learmonth and one that was ­arranged by the New Zealand government and landed first in Auckland. A girl in the Christmas Island camp became ill and on Friday was the first in quarantine to require a coronavirus test. On Sunday afternoon, the Australian Medical Assistance Team learned her sample — sent to the mainland — returned a negative result.

An RAAF plane was due to ­deliver machinery to Christmas Island on Monday that would allow the medical team at the ­detention centre to test on site.

All evacuees in quarantine undergo daily health checks at their accommodation. This includes a temperature check and questions including “Do you have a sore throat?” and “Do you have a cough?”

Everyone who arrived at ­Darwin on Sunday had been through several health checks and all were deemed well.

Professor Murphy said there were no plans for further rescue flights out of China but the ­Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would review this.

“We’ve certainly brought off the people of greatest risk,” he said. “If there were any further flights, there is certainly more ­capacity at Howard Springs but Christmas Island also may ­become vacant again after current evacuees complete their 14-day quarantine period.”

Professor Murphy said Australian health authorities in every state and territory had done well to contain the virus so far.

“We have got on to it very quickly,” he said.

“There is still a long way to go. There is still significant potential for further infection, but it shows that our public health measures so far have been very effective.”

Additional reporting: Robyn Ironside