Cruise ship evacuees face quarantine in Australia

Around 180 Australians evacuated from a virus-stricken cruise ship in Japan were flown home on Thursday to begin a second period of quarantine in the northern Australian city of Darwin.

The evacuees arrived on a Qantas 747, chartered by the Australian government. 46 Australian passengers on the ship - the Diamond Princess - tested positive for the virus and were not flown home. They would be treated in the Japanese health system, Australian officials said.

The new coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 illness infected more than 600 people on the Diamond Princess. The ship had been docked at the port of Yokohama for the past fortnight in a quarantine that was widely considered a failure. The quarantine ended Wednesday and about 500 passengers who tested negative for the virus left the ship.

More than 200 people are already quarantined at the Howard Springs facility after being evacuated from Wuhan, the central Chinese city that is the epicenter of the viral outbreak.

The group from the Diamond Princess will be kept separate from the Wuhan evacuees, who remain in good health, officials said.