Australia to Quarantine Coronavirus Evacuees in Outback Camp
Australia to Quarantine Coronavirus Evacuees in Outback Camp
(Bloomberg) -- Australia has confirmed it’s preparing a former resources industry workers’ camp in the Outback to quarantine evacuees from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan.
Australia will use “a mining camp facility in the Northern Territory near Darwin and we are working through the consultation phase with the local community and others about the implementation of those arrangements,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Friday.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who oversees Darwin, said on Friday the camp was built in 2012 to house as many as 3,500 workers on the now completed Inpex Corp. gas plant.
Australia has quarantined the first wave of citizens returning from Wuhan at the Christmas Island asylum-seeker detention center, about 1,200 miles from the mainland. The government is working with Chinese authorities to organize a second chartered flight from the city to evacuate Australian citizens and permanent residents.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Muneeza Naqvi
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