India Repatriation Flight Lands in Darwin

India Repatriation Flight Lands in Darwin
Qantas flight QF112 touches down at RAAF Base Darwin in Darwin, Australia on May 15, 2021. (Steven Hoare/Getty Images)
Caden Pearson
5/15/2021
Updated:
5/15/2021

After carrying life-saving oxygen equipment to India on Friday, a Qantas plane has returned on Saturday carrying Australians home from the CCP virus-ravaged country.

The 75-80 repatriated citizens, residents, and their families arrived in Darwin on QF 112 at 9.25 a.m. on Saturday and boarded busses to quarantine at the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.

Passengers from flight QF112 are transported to the Howard Springs Quarantine Facility in Darwin, Australia on May 15, 2021. (Steven Hoare/Getty Images)
Passengers from flight QF112 are transported to the Howard Springs Quarantine Facility in Darwin, Australia on May 15, 2021. (Steven Hoare/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, around 40 people, along with 30 of their close contacts, were barred from boarding in India after they tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

All passengers underwent PCR and rapid antigen testing before the eight-and-a-half hour flight, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in a statement.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the controversial weeks-long pause in travel from India had worked, with active cases in hotel quarantine dropping more than 40 percent over the past few weeks.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne holds a joint press availability with US Secretary Antony Blinken at the US State Department in Washington, DC on May 13, 2021. (Leah Millis/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne holds a joint press availability with US Secretary Antony Blinken at the US State Department in Washington, DC on May 13, 2021. (Leah Millis/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the temporary pause on flights ensured the country’s quarantine system was able to receive further flights.

“These government-facilitated flights will be focused on returning Australian citizens, residents and families who have registered with our High Commission and consular offices within India and will prioritise the most vulnerable people,” Payne said on Friday before the flight left Sydney for New Delhi.

Saturday’s flight marks the 39th government-facilitated commercial repatriation flight from India. Since March 2020, over 6,400 Australians have been returned via this scheme.

More than 9,000 Australians remain in India registered as wanting to return, about 900 of them said to be desperate or vulnerable.

Friday’s flight to New Delhi marked the second flight carrying essential medical supplies to support India’s health response under the Morrison government’s $37.1 million support package.

A health worker refills empty oxygen cylinders at a COVID-19 care centre established by District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMA) in Srinagar, India, on May 6, 2021. (Abid Bhat/AFP via Getty Images)
A health worker refills empty oxygen cylinders at a COVID-19 care centre established by District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMA) in Srinagar, India, on May 6, 2021. (Abid Bhat/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia joined countries around the world in sending aid to India following the severe rate of CCP virus infections. Australia has now delivered over 15 tonnes of medical supplies, including over 2,000 ventilators and more than 100 oxygen concentrators, DFAT said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said, “The Australian government is committed to doing all it can to support the Indian government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The arrival of returnees from India comes after the former deputy chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, warned that Australians have to come to terms with the fact the nation cannot ride out the pandemic “in an eliminationist bunker.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Coatsworth told the Australasian College of Surgeons on Thursday morning that once a significant majority of the community is vaccinated, there will be pressure to open borders without resistance.

Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India on May 1, 2021. (Amit Sharma/AP Photo)
Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India on May 1, 2021. (Amit Sharma/AP Photo)

Meanwhile, Australia’s High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell is disappointed those who tested positive weren’t allowed to get on the flight.

“My team has worked hard across India to get them bookings on this flight because they are vulnerable,” he told the ABC.

“Regrettably those people will have to return home and deal with the COVID that they have, or continue to isolate to prove that they don’t have COVID.

“Until such time that they test negative they won’t be able to fly on one of these facilitated flights,” he said.

The next government-facilitated flight from India is expected into Darwin on May 23.