Rescue flights from India on horizon

RESCUE flights to bring home Australians stranded in India will begin late next week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced.

Mr Morrison said three flights will land in the Northern Territory starting May 15 and returning Australians will quarantine at Darwin’s Howard Springs facility which now has a capacity to take 2000 people — up from 850.

Each flight will carry 150 people with the vulnerable and families groups kept together. But anyone with the virus will not be allowed to board.

“We have rapid antigen testing in place to give ourselves a greater sense of surety that if we are bringing people back to Australia we are minimising the risk of COVID cases being brought into the country,” Mr Morrison said.

“Those charter flights will, of course, be focused on bringing those Australian citizens, residents and families who have been registered with our high commission and consular offices within India. And it will also be targeted on those 900 most vulnerable of the group.”

NT acting chief health officer Charles Pain said it had been important to ensure the numbers of cases arriving did not overwhelm health systems.

“We have negotiated and agreed to a number of measures that will reduce the number of positives coming through and we are satisfied we can manage that,” Mr Pain said.

Mr Morrison said NSW, Queensland, and Victoria indicated they will start taking direct flights from India when the flight ban lifts next week. South Australia is considering the move “very favourably”.