Qantas has used hospital-grade cleaning solution capable of stopping sexually transmitted diseases to clean planes carrying people from Wuhan.
Qantas flew three planes carrying passengers from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak back to Australia.
The airline has stepped up their cleaning efforts in a bid to make sure their future commercial passengers were at minimal risk.
Qantas crews gave the Boeing 747 an extensive 36-hour clean before it resumed its typical flight schedule.
The plane’s cabin was sprayed twice with an intense disinfectant.
Qantas flew three planes carrying passengers from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak back to Australia
This included all seats, arm rests, tray tables, overhead baggage compartments, walls and floors.
Qantas used Viraclean to clean the aircraft, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Viraclean is a medical grade disinfectant that has been proven to kill germs of herpes, E coli, hepatitis B and salmonella.
Items such as pillows, blankets and headphones were removed, quarantined and disposed off before they were replaced with new version.
Qantas planes also have HEPA filters, which are used in hospital operating theatres and replace air in cabins every three to five minutes.
This means the air is cleaner than in most forms of public transport.
The cleaning procedures used by Qantas exceeded the ones they had in place for the SARS crisis and is developed by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
The airline stepped up their cleaning efforts in a bid to make sure their future commercial passengers were at minimal risk. Pictured: Wuhan evacuees flown on a Qantas plane to Darwin
Four flights – including one rerouted through New Zealand – have brought home Australians trapped in Wuhan following the outbreak.
Three of them were Qantas flights.
Those people were taken to Christmas Island and the Manigurr-ma Village at Howard Springs, an old mining camp about 30km from Darwin, for a 14-day quarantine.
Qantas crews gave the Boeing 747 an extensive 36-hour clean before it resumed its typical flight schedule (stock)
Australians who were on the cruise ship off of Japan – Diamond Princess – returned to Darwin last week on a Qantas flight.
Some of those people have since left their quarantine and have gone back to daily life.
Around 170 people were taken to the facility in Howard Springs, where they will spend the next 14 days.
CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA
NEW SOUTH WALES: 4
January 25
- Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
- Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
- They were treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital
January 27
- A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
- The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
VICTORIA: 7
January 25
- A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
- The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
- He was quarantined at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne’s east.
January 29
- A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
- He became unwell on January 23 – two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
- The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre.
January 30
- A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus.
- She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
- She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
February 1
- A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus
February 22
- Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive
- Third passenger take off the cruise ship tests positive
QUEENSLAND: 8
January 29
- Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national was diagnosed with the virus. He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.
January 30
- A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.
February 4
- An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from
February 5
- The case was found in a 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast
February 6
- A 37-year-old woman has been diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27
February 21
- Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment.
- A 57-year-old woman from Queensland also tests positive for the virus
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 3
February 1
- A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.
- A 24-year-old woman from South Australia has been transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 1
February 21
- A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth
JAPAN/DARWIN: 22
- 15 Australians were among 219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus contracted on board Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama.
- Seven passengers who were on board the Diamond Princess then tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving at the Manigurr-ma Village Howard Springs facility in Darwin
