The Australian Government has confirmed that it will help evacuate the 200 Australians stuck on board the coronavirus-quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
The passengers have been quarantined on the ship since February 3 at the Japanese port city of Yokohama.
Japan’s Health Ministry has confirmed that 454 passengers on board the quarantined ship have coronavirus. 26 of these passengers are Australians.
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Image: Getty
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has now confirmed that a special Qantas charter flight will fly the Aussie passengers back home tomorrow.
The flight is expected to touch down in Darwin where the passengers will enter a two week quarantine period at a mining camp.
More than 200 Australians brought home from Wuhan, China on February 9 are in quarantine at the camp already. The Diamond Princess passengers and evacuees from Wuhan will be kept separate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made it very clear that anyone who had been on the Diamond Princess would not be granted entry to Australia within the next 14 days if they did not take up the quarantine.
“I understand that those who were on board will feel very frustrated about this as well as their family members.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison
“Our first responsibility is that we have to protect the health and safety of Australians in Australia today,” he went on to say.
The US, Hong Kong and Canada are also in the process of evacuating their citizens from the Diamond Princess this week.