Australia in talks with national carriers to bring back citizens stranded overseas

The Australian government on Wednesday said it is in talks with national carriers Qantas and Virgin Australia to bring back its citizens stranded overseas, including from India.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesperson said it is exploring ways to allow Australians in India to return home including on commercial charter flights, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The department is also advising a group wanting to organise a private charter out of India, the report said.

Recently, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the government had worked with two major airlines, Qantas and Virgin Australia, to establish the network of flights to bring Australians home from other parts of the world by establishing four key international hubs -- London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland.

Payne said Australians overseas should not hesitate if they have an opportunity to take commercial flights home.

Many Australians will be able to get to one of these four destinations. They can do so knowing there will be an Australian airline to get them home, Payne said.

We recognise that, in some cases, this will not be possible. We will continue to work closely with airlines and our overseas consular assistance network in these situations.

Where there are no commercial options available, the government will consider supporting, on a case-by-case basis, non-scheduled services to other overseas destinations.

We are continuing our constructive discussions with Qantas and Virgin on flights to less accessible destinations, including South America and the Pacific.

The death toll in Australia from COVID-19 on Wednesday reached 50 and positive cases crossed 6,000.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that around 313,000 tests for coronavirus have been conducted across the country. Around 294 were hospitalised while 92 in intensive care and 36 were on respirators.

A 62-year-old woman died at Royal Adelaide Hospital while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also announced that another person had died on Tuesday.

There are now 6,015 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia, with 2,734 in New South Wales, 1,212 in Victoria, 943 in Queensland, 420 in South Australia, 481 in Western Australia, 98 in Tasmania, 99 in the Australian Capital Territory and 28 in the Northern Territory. Morrison said that rate of new case growth has slowed from more than 20 per cent to around 2 per cent a day. He said while this was very encouraging, Australia still has a long way to go. Through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought Australia valuable time to chart a way out over the next six months, the prime minister said. But there are no guarantees, and it could well take far longer. Our country will look different on the other side, but Australians will always be Australians,'' he said.

Australians were also strongly urged to stay home during the Easter weekend in a bid to restrict the spread of the virus.

Health Minister Greg Hunt warned abandoning social distancing rules over the long weekend would undo everything done to curtail the crisis. The virus doesn't take a holiday, Hunt said.

Meanwhile, the federal government's $(Aus)130 billion JobKeeper programme saw a massive surge in registrations with over 7,30,000 businesses applying for the scheme.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said around six million payments, totalling $(Aus)4.5 billion, had been made out of stimulus packages already put in place.