NSW Health is urgently seeking more information on two Australians who returned from Cambodia over the weekend and who need to remain in self-isolation due to coronavirus fears.
Sandy Smith, from Bli Bli in Queensland, said she and her husband Michael were waiting to hear when they would be booked by Holland America Lines on flights back to Australia. “We are guessing every day, hopefully it will be today,” she said, adding that more Australians had been booked on flights to return to home on Tuesday night and had left,“Some Australians have already left and some didn’t wait for HAL [to organise their flights home] but we are waiting because we want to do everything the right way.
” Michael Bellinger, from Tweed Heads, and his wife Rhani were among the ten Australians on board the Westerdam who were left the ship at around noon local time on Wednesday. The remaining passengers on the Westerdam left Sihanoukville in a convoy of 10 buses to the Sokha Phnom Penh hotel at around noon local time. As they left the ship after 36 days onboard, Mr Bellinger said he and his wife were "so excited, we have a daughter at home who is so upset". “We will stay at the hotel until we get our flights out tomorrow or the next day. Holland has been very good, paying for all our flights and reimbursing us [for the cruise].” Mr Bellinger said passengers had been told they are now able to return home to Australia via Thailand, which had previously stated it would not accept passengers from the Westerdam but wasn’t sure if the couple would return via Thailand, Japan or a third country. There are no direct flights between Cambodia and Australia.A large group of Australians quarantined on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in Japan for two weeks are now on their way home on a special Qantas flight. A Japanese worker wearing a protective suit stands next to a bus carrying Australians before boarding the Qantas plane for Darwin.Some 180 citizens and permanent residents took up the federal government's offer of a seat on the evacuation flight, which left Haneda Airport near Yokohama in the early hours of Thursday morning. But 15 chose to stay behind in Japan to be near family members who have been hospitalised after contracting the deadly disease, known as COVID-19. The Qantas Boeing 747 jet was making its way over the Philippines at 6.15am and heading to Darwin, where it's expected to land at a Royal Australian Air Force base in about four hours. A bus carrying passengers, who will board the Qantas aircraft chartered by the Australian government, from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship drive at the Daikoku Pier in Yokohama, Japan.Upon landing, the Australians will be screened for symptoms of the virus five times before being taken to a facility at Howard Springs, 30km south-east of Darwin. The evacuees have already spent more than two weeks quarantined on Diamond Princess in Yokohama port and will now face another 14-day isolation period at the former Inpex workers camp.The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus on the ship, which was carrying 3700 passengers and crew, has topped 620 and includes 36 Australians. Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge none of those returning passengers"will board the plane if they have any symptoms of the coronavirus or test positive obviously to the coronavirus".The last 36 Australians who were in quarantine on Christmas Island have also boarded flights home. Of the 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, eight people have fully recovered. Deputy chief medical offier, Professor Paul Kelly said there have been no new cases in Australia for almost two weeks. "There is no reason why anyone should be concerned about going to areas of our major cities or anywhere elsewhere Chinese people may be living," he said.
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