Cabin fever over for 180
ABOUT 180 Australians are expected to touch down in Darwin this morning after two weeks aboard a coronavirus-infected cruise ship in Japan.
The travellers will be screened upon arrival before being taken to the Howard Springs quarantine facility where they will stay for a further fortnight.
At least 36 Australians contracted the killer virus while held on the Diamond Princess, and are now receiving treatment in Japanese hospitals.
Relatives of those infected are understood to make up the majority of the approximately 15 Australians who rejected the Federal Government’s evacuation offer.
Acting immigration minister Alan Tudge said everyone would be screened throughout the travel and quarantine process.
“No passengers will board the plane if they have any symptoms of the coronavirus or test positive,” Mr Tudge said.
“The people boarding this flight will actually have five screenings conducted.”
Despite more than 20 per cent of the thousands of holiday-makers on the ship falling ill, hundreds were yesterday let off and allowed to go home.
The Japanese Government said they were all screened before disembarking.
However, experts have raised concerns they could still be incubating the illness without showing symptoms.
The virus has already claimed more than 2000 lives and there have been more than 75,000 cases confirmed worldwide.
None of the 15 confirmed cases in Australia has been regarded as serious.
Paracetamol was the only medicine used to treat four coronavirus patients isolated in Sydney hospitals.
Doctors reported that the illness was so mild the overthe-counter drug was all that was needed.
“The main treatment has been symptomatic treatment to bring down their fever,” Westmead Hospital’s Professor Tania Sorrell said.
News Corp can also reveal an experimental trial is underway to treat patients with the virus with the antiviral HIV drug Kaletra.
The impact of the virus has been felt across many sectors, including technology, with Australians being forced to wait weeks for repairs to their smartphones and laptops.
Some consumers with broken devices have been turned away from stores altogether in a trend repairers warn is likely to get worse as “the full impact hasn’t hit yet”.
The unusual side-effect of the outbreak came as tech giant Apple confirmed fears of iPhone shortages, telling investors sales were likely to fall as manufacturing the devices in China was “ramping up more slowly” than expected.