Australian child on Christmas Island suspected to have coronavirus cleared

Infection anxiety on the island settles as the Australian girl in quarantine is cleared of coronavirus.

Evacuees in the Christmas Island Australian Immigration Detention Centre on Friday, February 7. Picture: AAP

An Australian girl in quarantine on Christmas Island has been cleared of coronavirus after medics became concerned and decided she should be tested for the deadly disease.

The Australian has learned the Australian Medical Assistance Team was advised a short time ago that the sample flown to Perth on Friday for testing has returned a negative result.

The girl remains the only person among the more than 270 Australian citizens and permanent residents quarantined on the island to be tested for novel coronavirus

Ausmat team leader on the island Dan Holmes said the girl came to the attention of his team during daily screening to decide whether to further assess and then possibly test someone for the virus. The criteria includes questions like ‘do you have a sore throat’ or ‘do you have a cough’ as well as a temperature check.

“Of course there are a multitude of reasons why someone might have a sore throat (shouting too much, dry air from the aircon, a simple cold, acid reflux etc etc) or a cough (again a simple cold, asthma, smoking whatever),” De Holmes told The Australian. “So if someone is flagged they get more thoroughly checked by an infectious disease Doctor.

“These guys are the experts and make further clinical judgements.“ The Australian understands the girl was considered a borderline case for a test but due to the heightened alert over the disease, a conservative approach was taken and a test ordered. The girl has been allowed out of her accommodation inside the detention centre and she is well.

”Any group of nearly 300 people is going to get some people with these symptoms over a 2 week period,” Dr Holmes said.

”There are all manner of diseases which can cause them ... Living in the tropics can cause a degree of heat stress and raise body temperature. “This means we will be sending tests on occasion when we think the risks are low but we want to be more certain. “This is important because of course we are at the very early stages of understanding this virus and it’s behaviour. “So in this case the child fulfilled borderline criteria enough to warrant a test but not enough for us to be too concerned.

”Nevertheless she was confined to her room (with her family). Clearly you can’t isolate a child - they need to have someone to care for them).”

While two evacuees were earlier tested for other ­viruses, this was the first time medical staff had called specifically for a coronavirus test.

News that a test was deemed necessary for one of the evacuees has caused concern among others in the centre. Many have asked doctors and nurses for information about the case including whether they or their children are at risk.

There are more than 270 people on the island for quarantine after they were evacuated from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

“The Australian Government is aware of a female returnee on Christmas Island who is being tested for novel coronavirus,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Health told The Weekend Australian.

“Doctors believe there is a low likelihood that this patient will test positive for novel coronavirus and are testing her as a precaution.”

An unidentified girl at the Christmas Island facility is in isolation awaiting test results.

This comes only days after two evacuees were tested for another virus, earlier in the week.

The Australian Medical Assistance Team on Christmas Island had established procedures and were “well prepared” to deal with possible cases of novel coronavirus, the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said there was “no cause” for other Australian returnees on Christmas Island to be concerned about their health.

“Returnees in quarantine on Christmas Island are being monitored closely to support public health measures,” the spokeswoman said.

“The quarantine facility has been established to minimise contact between people and ensure any potential cases are quickly contained.”

Australia has so far had 15 confirmed cases of the virus: five in Queensland, four each in NSW and Victoria and two in South Australia.

More than 700 have died from coronavirus worldwide, with most of the deaths occurring in China, and more than 31,000 people have been infected.

Second Australian rescue mission touches down

A flight aimed at evacuating more Australians from the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan has landed in Darwin.

The Qantas plane, which was originally scheduled to leave Wuhan on Friday night, did not get clearance to land from China and had spent the day in Hong Kong.

The scene at Wuhan Airport on Saturday before the second evacuation flight of Australians. Picture: Supplied

Australians started their check-in for the second Qantas flight on Saturday night, one day later than its initial plan to leave the coronavirus epicentre.

It is believed some other countries including Britain were also conducting evacuation missions at the airport on Saturday night.

After the Australians’ arrival in Darwin they will be sent to the Manigurr-ma Village at Howard Springs, an old mining camp about 30km from Darwin.

Christmas Island was unable to house another couple of hundred evacuees. So far two groups of Australian citizens or permanent residents have been evacuated to Christmas Island, with 241 leaving on a Qantas flight and 35 departing on a later Air New Zealand flight.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned people not to assume any further evacuation flights will be possible, either from Wuhan or mainland China. Australia has so far had 15 confirmed coronavirus cases: five in Queensland, four each in NSW and Victoria and two in South Australia.

A worker takes the temperature of a customer at the entrance of a Walmart store in Wuhan.

Evacuees disembark the first rescue flight from Wuhan on February 3.

The DFAT spokesman said the process of assisted departure was a “complex operation under difficult circumstances”.

“Any such departure is always subject to operational requirements and to Chinese government final approval,” they said.

On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison advised Australians and their families still in China to take advantage of commercial flights leaving the country.

“The government cannot guarantee that similar styles of assisted departure will be available in the future,” he said.

The NT camp due to receive the evacuees was built by Japan­ese energy giant Inpex in 2012 to house workers on the $55bn Ichthys liquefied natural gas project. It is in a rural area but close to several businesses and a school.

New virus has infected more than 34,800 people globally

The US embassy in Beijing says a 60-year-old American citizen diagnosed with the new virus has died in Wuhan, apparently the first American fatality of the outbreak.

The embassy said in a brief statement Saturday that the American was confirmed to have been infected by the coronavirus and died at a hospital in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak. It said it would have no further comment out of respect for the family’s privacy.

China announced that the death toll on the mainland increased to 722 on Saturday, including the American. It said 3399 more people had been diagnosed with the virus over the last 24 hours, reversing two days of declines, raising the total number of cases on the mainland to 34,546.

The latest coronavirus figures reported by global health authorities as of Saturday in Beijing, according to the Associated Press:

China: 722 deaths and 34,546 confirmed cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has had 25 cases, including one death. Macao has had 10 cases. Most of the deaths have been in central Hubei province, where illnesses from the new type of coronavirus were first detected in December.

Japan: 89 cases; Singapore: 33; Thailand: 32; South Korea: 24; Taiwan: 16; Malaysia: 16; Australia: 14; Germany: 13; Vietnam: 13; United States: 12; France: 6; Canada: 6; United Arab Emirates: 5; Philippines: 3 cases, including 1 death; United Kingdom: 3; India: 3; Italy: 3; Britain: 3; Russia: 2; Belgium: 1; Nepal: 1; Sri Lanka: 1; Sweden: 1; Spain: 1; Cambodia: 1; Finland: 1.