About 80 people have begun quarantine at Howard Springs after arriving on a half-full Australian repatriation flight from India.

May 16, 2021

Repatriated Australians who arrived on the first flight from virus-ravaged India since a travel ban was lifted are starting their second day of quarantine.

About 80 returnees are understood to have made it onto the eight-and-a-half hour Dehli flight, which touched down about 9.25am AEST on Saturday.

But more than 40 people who tested positive pre-flight along with about 30 of their close contacts were barred from returning on QF 112, which had a COVID-safe capacity of 150 seats.

The returnees were transferred on two buses to the Howard Springs quarantine facility, where they will spend the next two weeks.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says testing in India before flights will continue to ensure Australia is protected from the virus.

“We’re dealing with a situation where we’ve seen more than 800,000 new COVID cases a day, there are new variants of the virus,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

“We’ve got to maintain our health settings because we know how damaging both to the livelihoods of Australians an outbreak would be.”

Asked what medical assistance would be given to infected Australians left behind in Dehli, Mr Frydenberg said the High Commission in India was working with them.

More than 9000 Australians are registered as wanting to return, with about 900 of them said to be desperate or vulnerable.

The next government-facilitated flight is expected into Darwin on May 23, bringing up a total of 40 such flights since March 2020.

Both PCR and rapid antigen tests are a prerequisite for being able to board.

The 26 per cent positive rate among the 150 people considered for Saturday’s flight is far higher than the 3.5 per cent rate registered in passengers on flights in March.

National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Len Notaras says those who were unable to get on the Qantas Dreamliner will have to reapply to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for a seat on another flight.

Flights from the subcontinent were suspended in late April when positive COVID cases from India at Howard Springs skyrocketed.

The facility can handle about 100 positive cases, but AUSMAT and NT Health who run the facility are aiming to keep that number at 50.