Australian family forced to stay on Diamond Princess after coronavirus test

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, but their departure was not without drama.

Some 180 citizens and permanent residents had taken 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 of those who were ready to go, 10 were told they could not leave because they had tested positive to the deadly disease, known as COVID-19, meaning only 170 could make the flight, Nine Network reported.

Melbourne mother Aun Na Tan said her family had packed their bags and were ready to board the flight when she learned her 16-year-old daughter Kaitlyn tested positive.

‘We were pushing our bags out when the call came with our test results from Monday’s sampling. Kaitlyn has tested positive. We will not be taking the flight tonight. Our family will stay together,’ Ms Tan revealed.

Melbourne mother Aun Na Tan (centre) found out her 16-year-old daughter Kaitlyn (left) had tested positive to coronavirus. The family have decided to stay with her in Japan

‘We were pushing our bags out when the call came with our test results from Monday’s sampling,’ she revealed 

Another 15 had already chosen to stay behind in Japan to be near family members who have been hospitalised after contracting the virus.

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 around 8am ACST.

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.

Some 180 citizens and permanent residents had taken 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

Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly said while the ship’s quarantine methods had worked to stop the virus spreading onshore, there had been a recent spike in cases onboard.

‘It just demonstrates the infectiousness of this particular virus and how it can spread very easily in a closed setting like a cruise ship,’ he said.

The cruise ship evacuees will be kept separate from hundreds of people already in quarantine at Howard Springs and who were evacuated from the epicentre of the virus at Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province earlier this month.

This group are ‘due to go home in a few days, all things going well’, Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, all of the evacuees on Christmas Island have now left the detention-centre turned-quarantine-facility.

None have tested positive for the coronavirus.

There have been 15 confirmed cases of the disease in Australia. Eight people recovered and the rest are in stable conditions.

So far there have been more than 75,200 cases worldwide and 2009 people have died. Almost all of the deaths were in China.

Australians Clare Hedger and her mother from the cruise ship Diamond Princess are pictured during an evacuation to Darwin ahead of quarantine