Home for Kiwis on infected cruise ship

New Zealanders trapped on a coronavirus-infected cruise ship in Japan will hopefully soon be making their way home.

The New Zealand Government is looking into options to evacuate Kiwis on board the Diamond Princess.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said more than 200 people stranded on the ship will be flown to the Northern Territory today on a Qantas charter flight. They will be placed in quarantine there for another 14 days, rather than at Christmas Island, The Guardian reported.

Speaking to media yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the assisted evacuation from Japan to Darwin gave Kiwis the option to come home.

‘‘I feel confident we are giving people options here. We are giving people the ability to come home and that’s important.’’

The Diamond Princess’ crew and 3700 passengers were placed in quarantine on February 4. Since then, the number of infected people on board had risen to more than 450.

At least 11 New Zealanders remained in quarantine on board the cruise ship in Yokohama and two others had already been hospitalised in Japan after contracting the virus.

Ardern said passengers had a choice to try to return via the assisted evacuation, or choose to fly commercially. However if they chose to try to fly commercially, ‘‘that then exposes a range of other people to risks’’.

Health Minister David Clark said the Government was exploring further quarantine options and at this stage, a Defence facility at Whangapara¯ oa, north Auckland, was the leading option.

In early February, a Government-chartered flight helped evacuate 98 New Zealand citizens and permanent residents and 69 foreign nationals from Wuhan, China.

Those evacuees had to stay in quarantine for 14 days at the Defence Force training base in Whangapara¯ oa.

‘‘With Kiwis as our number one concern – the health and safety of New Zealanders – we are exploring the quarantine at Whangapara¯oa as the leading option for bringing people back,’’ he said.

Yesterday, Clark said the Government was listening to science and public health experts, and making decisions based on the best evidence available.

Ardern said they hadn’t had the ability to bring passengers on board the cruise ship home ‘‘until now’’.

She said she also absolutely understood the frustrations that existed around quarantine.

Although cruise ship passengers had already been in quarantine, ‘‘unfortunately we have seen cases continue’’.

‘‘In fact, two New Zealanders were infected on the ship so we know that that transmission has been happening – it’s real. So, through no fault of anyone here, it hasn’t been a place where it’s been easy to undertake that quarantine,’’ she said.

‘‘People have got sick so we do need to give the assurance to the New Zealand public through that further quarantine.’’

Ardern said she didn’t want to cast judgment on the decision to quarantine on the ship, but said it was an incredibly difficult situation to manage and everyone involved had done the best they could.

The novel coronavirus had infected more than 70,000 people and killed more than 1700, most of them in central China. No cases had been reported yet in New Zealand.