Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne said 243 citizens and permanent residents evacuated Wuhan on Monday on an Australian government-chartered aircraft, fleeing the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak which has killed 361 people.
The 243 people will be quarantined in a detention centre on Christmas Island, a remote island in the Indian Ocean off WA’s northwest coast. The island is much closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland.
The Australian-run centre has in the past been used to detain asylum seekers.
“We have prioritised vulnerable and isolated Australians which is reflected in the fact that 89 of the Australians on the flight are under 16 and five are under two,” Payne told reporters in Canberra.
All passengers and crew were being given masks and hand sanitiser, and the crew were being told to remain on the upper deck of the plane other than for manning the doors. The aircraft has medical grade air filters, which eliminate 99% of particles, including viruses, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.
“It’s a lot safer, a lot cleaner than being in a restaurant, in an office,” he said.
The Qantas Airways plane had been scheduled to leave Wuhan late on Sunday but experienced some delays as China checked the temperatures of those departing.
The Qantas flight will go to an air force base in WA, from where the government will fly the passengers to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean 1,500 km from the mainland, where they will be kept in the controversial immigration detention centre.
Payne said the evacuees will be transported to Christmas Island on Australian military flights.
Wuhan in Hubei province has been in lockdown to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 361 people as of Monday. The first death from the virus outside China was reported on Sunday in the Philippines.
There were 600 Australians registered in the Hubei region as of last week, and Payne said Canberra would consider further evacuations if needed.
Australia on Saturday followed the United States in barring entry to all foreign nationals travelling from mainland China and raised its travel warning for China to the highest level, advising people against visiting the country at all.
The move stoked concern about the Australia-China relationship which has deteriorated in recent years, but Payne said Beijing understood Canberra’s rationale.
Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Colin Packham in Sydney.