The second evacuation plane that was due to take Australians fleeing the coronavirus epidemic in China is stuck in Hong Kong, waiting for approval from China to fly to Wuhan
The Department of Foreign Affairs emailed about 200 passengers booked on the flight on Saturday, saying the flight was scheduled to leave just after midnight, with check-in opening at 6pm local time. While it is still waiting approval from China, DFAT advised the passengers to "plan to proceed with the flight today [Saturday]."Advertisement"We are engaging closely with the Chinese authorities to ensure our flight can proceed as soon as possible," the spokesperson said.
There are already 276 evacuees from China quarantined in Australia's offshore detention centre on Christmas Island. After Australia's chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy declared the site full, remaining evacuees are set to be taken to a mining camp site about 30 kilometres outside Darwin.As of Friday, there were more than 31,000 confirmed infections of the flu-like virus and about 638 deaths.
On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged Australians elsewhere in China to use the remaining commercial flights out of mainland China to return to Australia. "I strongly suggest you avail yourself of those because the government cannot guarantee that similar types of assisted departure arrangements would be able to be put in place in the future, either into mainland China or again to Wuhan."
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