Australia eyes second flight from Wuhan as evacuees arrive on Christmas Island
flight attendant
Australiamay arrange asecondevacuationflightout of China'sWuhancity, the epicenter of the coronavirus, after the first planeload of its citizensarrived onChristmasIslandin the Indian Ocean, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday.
Some 241 passengers on the initialflightwill be quarantined for two weeks on the remoteAustralia-runisland, about 1,400 km (870 miles) northwest of mainlandAustralia.
Qantas Airways Ltdcarrying theevacueesand Department of Health officials landed at a military airbase north of Perth, where passengers were transferred to two smaller planes for theflighttoChristmasIsland. The first of the charteredflights landed onChristmasIslandon Tuesday morning.
"AllAustralians who were on ourflightout ofWuhanhavearrived safely," Morrison said in a series of posts on his verified Twitter account, calling the evacuation a "complex and very challenging operation".
"We are now working with the Chinese authorities on a possiblesecondassisted departureflightforAustralians seeking to leaveWuhan," Morrison added.
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Read More:Australia evacuates 200 people from Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak in China
Australiahas said it plans to keepevacueesonChristmasIslandfor two weeks, the maximum incubation period of the newly identified virus which has sparked a global health emergency and killed more than 400 people in China, mostly inWuhanand surrounding Hubei province.
Morrison saidAustraliahad also been working with New Zealand to share some seats on a plane organised by its trans-Tasman neighbour.
An evacuationflightchartered by Air New Zealand Ltd is scheduled to leaveWuhanlate on Tuesday,Wuhantime, with 70 New Zealanders and an unspecified number ofAustralians on board and was expected toarrivein Auckland on Wednesday, the airline said.
Australian citizens on theflightwould be transferredfromAuckland toChristmasIsland, the New Zealand government has said.
In addition to the 241evacueestaken toChristmasIsland, Morrison said two passengers on the Qantasflight, a pregnant woman and her partner, "have been transferred to Perth and are in isolation there".
Wuhanin Hubei province has been in lockdown to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 414 people in the province. The first deathfromthe virus outside China was reported on Sunday in the Philippines.
There were 600Australians registered in the Hubei region as of last week.
Australiaon Saturday followed the United States in barring entry to all foreign nationals travelingfrommainland China and raised its travel warning for China to the highest level, advising people against visiting the country at all.