Island quarantine ruled out
Chinese city that is at the centre of a deadly coronavirus outbreak. The number of people in Australia confirmed with coronavirus has risen to seven, with a 44-yearold Chinese national becoming the first confirmed case in Queensland.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australians evacuated from Wuhan would be quarantined on Christmas Island, where Australia has an immigration detention centre.
Yesterday, Peters ruled out sending New Zealand evacuees there.
‘‘We’re looking at the quarantine options within New Zealand already. We’re working on that,’’ Peters told RNZ.
He couldn’t yet say where evacuees coming to New Zealand were likely to be quarantined.
The timing of any evacuation depended on getting the go ahead from the Chinese government for an aircraft to be used.
Qantas is reported to be planning an emergency flight to Wuhan. Peters said agreement from staff was needed for them to provide personnel for the plane.
‘‘It’s awfully complex to go through that. Then the medical specialists would be put together. All the safeguards for containment, with respect to the crew and respect to the passengers before and after, as well as the quarantine provisions.’’
National’s foreign affairs spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, said it seemed ‘‘weird’’ Peters had ruled out an available quarantine on Christmas Island without having an alternative plan.
He would not say whether Peters was right to rule out Christmas Island because he did not know what the conditions were or what the proposed medical treatment might be.
‘‘Yes, we are totally reliant on the Australians to assist us in getting New Zealanders out of Wuhan but having no follow-up plan at this point is not very comforting.’’
Tourism Industry Aotearoa communications manager Annmarie Johnson said the Ministry of Health had individual memorandum of understanding agreements with some hotels where the ministry could ask that rooms be made available for quarantine purposes.
She was not aware if the ministry had approached hotels to provide rooms for people being evacuated from Wuhan.