Australia Converts Tourist Island Full of Quokkas Into Covid-19 Quarantine Zone

Rottnest Island , an Australian tourist name and address , is being win over into a quarantine zone for 800 sail rider during the covid-19 pandemic , according to a raw report from Australia ’s public broadcaster . The island is far-famed for being one of the only place in the cosmos with quokkas , a docile pouched mammal that does n’t mind having its exposure admit with tourists .

The Vasco da Gama cruise ship is carrying 950 passengers and 550 crew and is schedule to tail in the city of Fremantle , Western Australia on Friday . The 800 Australian nationals on board will debark and be loaded onto ferries for the roughly 45 - minute trip to Rottnest , according to Australia’sABC News . They ’ll remain on the island for 14 day .

“ In the last two days we have cleared the island of visitant and made arrangement for adjustment , catering , and security measure , ” Western Australia ’s Premier Mark McGowan , the equivalent weight of a state of matter regulator in the U.S. , read at a press league on Wednesday .

File photo of a quokka on Rottnest Island, Australia, taken in 2018

File photo of a quokka on Rottnest Island, Australia, taken in 2018Photo: (Matt Novak)

The island reportedly has 699 room for the 800 citizenry , which should work out because many of the cruise passengers were move as couples who can bunk together . Most tourer visit Rottnest by boat , but there is a small landing place pad for helicopters if exigency aesculapian evacuation becomes necessary . There are no reports of anyone sick aboard the Vasco da Gama cruise , and the quarantine is being taken as a care .

The Australian government is still coordinate with extraneous governments to figure out how to get people who are n’t Australians to their base body politic . All foreign subject will remain on the cruise ship until authorities determine how to get them out safely .

“ They will not be allowed to disembark at any fourth dimension unless it is to trip under strict supervision straight off to the airport , or they need urgent medical attention to survive , ” McGowan said .

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Photo: (Getty Images)

There are still two other cruise ships presently waiting off the slide of Western Australia that are not being earmark to dock in Fremantle because they hold no Australian subject . One of the ship , Magnifica , has at least 250 grisly passengers and is reportedly being allow to refuel in Fremantle , but will make its mode to Dubai this week . Police are monitoring the cruise to make indisputable no one disembarks on Australian land , consort to theGuardian .

Cars are banned on Rottnest , by from a handful of utility vehicles used for alimony . Most people get around the island by walking and wheel , as you may see in the picture below . There ’s also a bus that does a circuit around the island , driving slowly so to annul running over the little quokkas . It ’s not yet absolved what sort of freedom of movement masses who are quarantined on the island might have once they arrive .

Australia currently has at least 2,364 cases of covid-19 and eight deaths , allot to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker . The nation of Western Australia has 205 cases and one dying , harmonise to theWestern Australia Department of Health . Australia ’s high-risk irruption so far are in the easterly part of the country , include the State Department of New South Wales , which has 1,029 cases and seven deaths .

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Photo: (Getty Images)

Rottnest Island , describe by Dutch adventurer in the 17th 100 , literally transform to “ rat ’s nest ” because the quokkas look like varmint . But the endearing little creatures have made Rottnest Island a popular vacation spot for renown and social medium influencers who hump to snapselfies with the animals . The autochthonic name for Rottnest in the Noongar language is Wadjemup .

Roughly 770,000 people visit Rottnest Islandeach year , but the holiday address only has a handful of permanent residents . Most workers take the ferryboat from Fremantle , a suburbia of nearby Perth , each day to work in the store and restaurant on Rottnest .

Quokkas got the name “ happiest animal in the world ” after a BuzzFeed listicle deemed them that inJanuary of 2013 . The designation of “ happiest animate being ” is non - scientific and the BuzzFeed article only called them that because quokkas often seem to be smiling and are very sociable since they have no predators on the island .

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Photo: (Getty Images)

British settler used Rottnest Island as a assiduity bivouac for Aboriginal people in the19th centuryand at least 5 hoi polloi were executed on the island in the 1870s and eighties . The island was also used as an internment camp for Germans and Austrians during World War I and for Germans and Italians during World War II .

Much likein the U.S. , Australia ’s favorite tourist destinations are the sites of awful horrors . But the quokkas sure are precious , are n’t they ? allow ’s just hope the little marsupials ca n’t contract the disease . As we ’ve already seen in Hong Kong , two dogs havetested positive for covid-19 , and one of them has die .

AnimalsaustraliaCOVID-19

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