BREAKING Australia will evacuate around 200 citizens from the quarantined cruise ship in Japan.
Australians stranded on the coronavirus-hit cruise ship off the coast of Japan will be flown home on Wednesday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said more than 200 Australians currently on board the Diamond Princess would have to face a further 14 days of quarantine at a former workers' village outside Darwin.
"So for those who are on board, we are with you, we are doing everything we can to support you," he told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. "We want to get you home to your family, your friends as quick as we possibly can with the best care possible."The ship has been in quarantine in the port of Yokohama for more than two weeks, with the number of cases on board now up to 355, with 16 of them Australians. Mr Morrison said he understood passengers would be frustrated to learn they would face a new period of quarantine, but said the health of Australians on Australian soil was the first priority. The evacuation decision was made by the national security committee of cabinet on the advice of an Australian infectious disease expert, who is in Japan assessing the situation on board the ship.Wednesday's flight will also include New Zealanders, who will be transferred home after landing in Darwin. There are already more than 260 Australians in the midst of their two-week quarantine period at the disused work camp. They were evacuated from the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan in China and landed in Australia on 9 February, with their quarantine period set to end on Saturday.A passengers is seen on a balcony of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.There have been 15 cases in Australia, with eight people now recovered and the rest in a stable condition. Prior to Mr Morrison's announcement an exhausted Melbourne woman stuck on the ship questioned whether people would take up the evacuation offer in the hope they can leave the ship as early as Friday, when their existing quarantine period expires.Vera Koslova-Fu said she didn't want to go to another facility for 14 days if she had tested negative. "You need to tell me why I need to have a further 14 days of quarantine if I am tested negative," she told AAP."We just feel like we're kept in the dark," she said.
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