Vulnerable Australians trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak will be evacuated to Christmas Island.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the plan on Wednesday, saying the island will be set up as a quarantine zone where the evacuated Australians will remain for at least 14 days.
Australia’s national security committee kicked the plan into gear on Wednesday but approval from Chinese authorities is required before it proceeds.
Qantas has offered its aircraft for the operation, to be conducted jointly with New Zealand.
Mr Morrison was unable to say how many Australians would be evacuated but said “isolated and vulnerable” people such as the elderly and babies would be helped first.
“I stress that this will be done on a last in/first out basis,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
More than 600 Australian citizens in Wuhan have registered for advice or assistance.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said people who are in China but outside Hubei province were able to return home freely.
But the evacuation offer for people in Wuhan is likely to be a one-off and decisions to take up the offer should be made quickly.
“It’s not going to be something that’s going to be repeated,” Mr Porter told 6PR radio.
“That province has been closed down so us having an assisted exit using a Qantas chartered jet is something that we feel we should do for the wellbeing of those Australians.”
Australians are being cautioned against travel to China and in particular to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, in the Hubei province.
There are now more than 6000 cases of the respiratory illness and 132 deaths, mainly in Wuhan.
Only 20 per cent of people have a “severe” version of the disease.
Five people are being treated in Australian hospitals for the virus. Four of those cases – one woman and three men – are in NSW and the fifth, a man, is in Melbourne.
Four adult patients in Western Australia were cleared of the virus after undergoing tests on Tuesday evening.
Australian authorities are reviewing possible foreign cases of the virus being spread by person-to-person contact outside of China.
Cases have emerged in Germany, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan of the virus spreading by human transmission, as opposed to being limited to those who have returned from a trip to China.
Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy says the cases, although isolated, are a concern.
“The thing that we are determined to avoid internationally and nationally is what we call sustained human-to-human transmission, where you go from one person to another,” he said.
“These are isolated cases in Japan and Germany but they are obviously of some concern and we’re having that reviewed today by our peak communicable diseases advice panel.”
Australian diplomats in Shanghai are being sent to Wuhan to help with the evacuation and an AUSMAT team of doctors, nurses and paramedics has been readied.
The US embassy in Beijing has reportedly chartered a plane to pick up its consular staff while the European Commission said it would help fund two aircraft to fly EU citizens home, including 250 French nationals.
Japan is also among countries reportedly planning to fly charter planes into Wuhan to evacuate their own citizens.
Authorities are bracing for more infections to be confirmed in Australia, and are working to trace all human contact made by infected patients since they entered the country from China.
One million masks are being released to Australia’s health networks.
A coronavirus infection reveals itself through symptoms including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
AAP