More cases expected

HEALTH officials are moving more people, evacuated to Darwin from the

Diamond Princess cruise ship, into isolation as they show symptoms of coronavirus.

Four people tested positive for the potentially fatal virus yesterday, bringing the number of cases in the NT to six. Tests have been done on at least three more people at the Howard Springs quarantine site.

HEALTH officials are moving more people, evacuated to Darwin from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, into isolation as they show symptoms of coronavirus.

Five people tested positive for the potentially fatal disease yesterday, bringing the number of cases in the NT to seven. Two Victorians and two Queenslanders were yesterday repatriated to their home states after tests confirmed they had contracted the virus. The third Queenslander stayed in Darwin in isolation overnight. They will be flown home tomorrow.

Acting chief health officer Di Stephens said the team was expecting more people at the Howard Springs quarantine to be moved to isolation.

“We do have three people who were identified overnight (who) will be screened today and tested,” she said yesterday. “I expect there may be more numbers put into isolation during the day today.”

Dr Stephens would not reveal how many more people had been moved into isolation but said families were being kept together.

“The very close contacts of the people who have tested positive have already been in isolation,” Dr Stephens said.

“Where possible we are repatriating partners with their loved ones interstate, where the retrieval platforms are available to take them.”

So far, the people with potential cases of the virus are only displaying minor symptoms. “They are all reasonably well, with a sore throat, symptoms of a common cold essentially,” Ms Stephens said.

“The rest of the population at Howard Springs are doing very well.” The Wuhan cohort of evacuees, who first arrived at Howard Springs’ Inpex workers camp 14 days ago, will be released sometime this morning. “They’ve been extremely appreciative of the opportunity to come home,” Ms Stephens said.

The Australian Government yesterday lifted the travel ban for year 11 and year 12 international students coming from China, except those arriving from the Hubei province.