Four ship evacuees have virus

FOUR people evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan to an Australian quarantine centre have contracted coronavirus, and more cases are possible.

A man, 78, from Western Australia was to be transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth last night.

His wife will travel with him, but then be isolated at home for two weeks.

A woman, 24, from South Australia is being transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Both remained well yesterday and had been housed in a separate isolation unit at Howard Springs, outside Darwin.

Last night, health authorities announced two Queensland women who were on the ship had also tested positive.

The women, both in their 50s and not related, are expected to be flown to a Brisbane hospital at the weekend.

Australian chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said the cases were not surprising, despite them clearing multiple screenings before being taken to Howard Springs.

“There has been ongoing detection of infection on the Diamond Princess cruise ship over the last few days, so it’s not unexpected that some people might have been incubating the virus,” he said.

“It’s possible more people could develop positive tests over the next few days. We don’t know that, but if they do we are completely well set up to detect and manage them and isolate them.”

Prof Murphy said the WA and SA evacuees were in a clinically “reasonable” condition.

Four others tested for the virus after returning to Australia on Thursday have been cleared and released from isolation.

All those who had displayed cold-like symptoms were separated from others on the flight.

The new cases take the total number in Australia to 19. Of those, 10 have recovered.