The Australian government will launch an evacuation of more than 200 Australians trapped on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and quarantine them in a Darwin mining camp for another two weeks.
AP Dozens of families who have been trapped inside their cabins for two weeks will spend another fortnight in quarantine at a Darwin mining camp once they return to Australia. They will joinMore than 100 Australian residents remain stranded in the Chinese province of Hubei, where more than 1690 people have died from the virus and 58,182 cases have been confirmed.
The first group of Australians evacuated from the area and transferred to Christmas Island for quarantine on February 3on Monday pleading with him to "exhaust all means" to send another evacuation flight to the Chinese city of Wuhan. More than 270 of them will land at airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth on Monday night after being released from their two-week quarantine."You helped us at a very difficult time, overcame all kinds of difficulties during our return to Australia, and gave us greatest possible care and help," the letter signed by more than 200 evacuees said. "We sincerely hope this wonderful story will have a perfect ending. We urge you and Australian government to exhaust all means to bring them home now." Australian resident Wen Jia, who remains in Hubei, said she felt "very uneasy, upset and let down" after being left behind by the government. She said she was with three families with children, including a six-year-old, four-year old and a teenager who are Australian citizens. "We only hope that the Australian government could pick us up," she said. "If we can't return, there will be big problems with housing loan, children's school, and our work and health." Mr Morrison said there were "no plans" for another evacuation flight from the Chinese city at this point. "We are monitoring the situation very closely. At the time when we undertook the first two flights, we were very clear we could not guarantee that there would be any further flights," he said.
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