Coronavirus: two Australians evacuated from Diamond Princess test positive in Darwin

Two Australians evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise liner in Japan have tested positive to the disease in Darwin.

The two, one young person and one elderly, remain well and are being housed in a separate isolation unit inside the Manigurr-ma village outside Darwin, Australia’s chief medical officer said Friday morning.

Public health authorities from their home states were organising medical transfers for the patients and their partners.

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Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Brendan Murphy, said all of the 164 Australian citizens and permanent residents evacuated from the Diamond Princess on Thursday, and flown to Darwin, were health screened before boarding the Qantas flight out of Japan. None of those allowed to board returned positive tests or displayed any symptoms of the disease.

The passengers were screened again when they landed in Darwin and six showed minor respiratory symptoms and fevers. They were isolated from others in the group. Four of those patients have returned negative tests.

“Given there was continued evidence of spread of infection on board the Diamond Princess in recent days, the development of some positive cases after return to Australia is not unexpected, despite all of the health screening before departure.” Murphy said.

“Fellow passengers and crew on the Qantas flight which returned people trapped on the Diamond Princess can be assured all measures were taken to ensure their protection.”

Murphy said there was no public health risk from the new infections. “This development poses no risk to the broader community.”

Ten Australians who sought to board the evacuation flight from Japan were told they could not leave because they had tested positive to Covid-19. They are being treated in Japan. It’s not known when they will be able to return to Australia.

The acting NT chief health officer, Dianne Stephens, said the medical teams working inside the Manigurr-ma village, a former worker’s village in Howard Springs on Darwin’s outskirts, were maintaining strict quarantine protocols.

“Every day we will screen, we will isolate people who have symptoms and we will test them and we will follow this process. The Ausmat team know how to ... manage quarantine and infection control. So the community remains safe from the Covid-19 infection as do all the staff within the facility as do all the staff that were on the plane that brought those people home.”

The 290-metre Diamond Princes cruise liner has become the largest outbreak of coronavirus outside of mainland China, with 634 cases, far ahead of the next largest centres, South Korea (104), and Japan (94).

Related: Australia extends coronavirus ban on travel from China into fourth week

Two people who contracted the illness on board the ship, an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman, have died.

The quarantine procedures on board have been criticised, in particular the failure to isolate known cases from uninfected people.

In a YouTube video since pulled offline, Kentaro Iwata, professor at the infectious diseases division of Japan’s Kobe University, described the situation on board as “chaotic” and “completely inadequate in terms of infection control”.

Globally, Covid-19 has infected 76,000 people and killed 2,267.

There have been 17 cases of coronavirus in Australia: five in Queensland; four in New South Wales; four in Victoria; two in South Australia, and now, two in the Northern Territory. Ten of the earlier cases have fully recovered.

On Thursday, the government extended a ban on travellers from China entering Australia. Foreign nationals – excluding permanent residents – who have been in mainland China will not be allowed to enter Australia for 14 days from the time they left mainland China.

Australian citizens and permanent residents will still be able to enter, as will their immediate family members, defined as spouses, legal guardians and dependants only.

People who have been in contact with someone confirmed to have coronavirus must self-isolate for 14 days from the time they were in contact with that person.