Australian quarantine capacity expanded to repatriate citizens stranded overseas

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, October 16, 2020
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CANBERRA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a plan to repatriate tens of thousands of citizens stranded overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan announced on Friday afternoon the Howard Springs facility southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT) will be used to quarantine 5,000 travellers returning from Britain, India and South Africa over the next five to six months.

The government has finalized an initial program with Qantas of eight flights over coming weeks from London, New Delhi and Johannesburg.

"This agreement will extend out, on this arrangement until the end of March with both the opportunity to extend that agreement and expand that agreement should additional capacity become available at that facility," Morrison told reporters.

"That would give us roughly, over that period of time, given the two week quarantine period plus the cleansing of the facility in between groups coming through of around about 5,000 people over that period of time."

Morrison also said in a media release that Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officials will work with Qantas to ensure the most vulnerable Australians registered are given priority access to these flights.

According to the figures from the government, there are more than 29,000 Australians currently registered with DFAT wishing to return to Australia.

Their efforts to do so have been impeded by the government's cap on international arrivals, which is currently set at about 5,500 per week in order to protect the hotel quarantine system.

Under current arrangements for domestic quarantine at Howard Springs, it will cost about 2,500 Australian dollars (1,769.2 U.S. dollars) for individuals and 5,000 Australian dollars for families on top of the cost of flights, according to The Australian Broadcasting Corporation report. Enditem

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