Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has suggested central Australian mining towns could be turned into quarantine facilities if the coronavirus outbreak is not contained soon.
The government is considering the options if the Christmas Island detention centre reaches capacity.
“There are isolated mining camps or the prospect of hotels that you could take over,” Mr Dutton said on Wednesday.
“But I think we’ll look at all of those in order of what we think is the best response, but all of this is in the spirit of preparation.”
Christmas Island detention centre is being used to house 241 Australian citizens, who were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan earlier this week.
More Australians arrive on Christmas Island after being evacuated from the virus epicentre of Wuhan. Source: AAP
They'll be joined on Thursday by another 35 people evacuated.
The decision to use Christmas Island as a quarantine facility for two weeks surprised those stranded in China and some evacuees have complained the centre is unhygienic.
Mr Dutton has dismissed the complaints.
"I think frankly, overwhelmingly, except for one photo of one cockroach, most people are complimentary of what has happened,” he said.
“The scale of this in China, and the way in which these numbers continue to expand, I think gives people an understanding of the gravity of what it is we’re dealing with, not just in China but now as we see on cruise ships and movements of Australians.”
To date none of the men, women and children evacuated to the island have been diagnosed with coronavirus, but the federal government is remaining firm on its quarantine policy, even banning flights from China to Australia for all non-Australians.
quarantine centre in Christmas Island Source: SBS Mandarin
There are 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including an eight-year-old boy who was part of a tour group from China visiting Queensland.
Two Australian citizens have contracted the coronavirus while on a cruise ship now quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, Japan.
There are currently 24,505 cases of the virus globally, the vast majority of which are in China, and nearly 500 have died.
China’s embassy has criticised the government for the implementation of the travel bans, criticism Prime Minister Scott Morrison “respectfully disagrees” with as he argues it’s most important to “put Australia’s national interests first”.
Peter Dutton has also warned that if the situation worsens stricter travel regulations will be enforced.
