Two hundred Australian citizens and 43 permanent residents have been flown out of the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan on a chartered Qantas evacuation flight that will take them to Christmas Island via Western Australia.

Key points: The Qantas 747 will first fly to Exmouth in Western Australia

The Qantas 747 will first fly to Exmouth in Western Australia The evacuees will then spend two weeks at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre

The evacuees will then spend two weeks at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre Australia has barred Chinese citizens and travellers from China from entering the country

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the passengers as well as 14 crew, four pilots and officials from the Department of Health were on board the flight.

The Qantas 747, which took off from Wuhan this morning and is expected to arrive in Exmouth later today, is the first of two flights that will take several hundred Australian citizens and permanent residents out of the locked-down city.

After stopping off at Exmouth's RAAF Base Learmonth, they will be taken to Christmas Island to spend two weeks in quarantine at the almost-empty immigration detention centre with a team of doctors and nurses.

Eighty-nine of the evacuees are under 16 years of age, including five under the age of two.

The plane landed in Wuhan at 1:10am (local time) via Hong Kong, and was initially expected to only spend an hour on the ground.

But passengers ended up waiting on board for four-and-a-half hours before take-off.

Mr Joyce earlier said there were issues complicating the flight, including the fact Wuhan airport was closed to regular services.

However, he said delays had been expected and planned for.

The Qantas crew are all wearing protective gear and the plane will be deep-cleaned after the mission is over.

Some chose to wait it out

Some Australians in Wuhan declined the evacuation, choosing to wait things out rather than accept the indirect route home.

Sydney mother of three Gloria Zeng was hesitant to leave because of concerns about staying on Christmas Island, instead of being quarantined somewhere on the Australian mainland.

But Ms Zeng changed her mind on the day of the flight.

"I got a lot of pressure from my husband. He said the situation is not very good, all the other countries have started to close the borders," she told the ABC.

"He said if we stay over here, it would probably take a couple of months to get out of Wuhan, so he started to get really nervous."

The coronavirus death toll has reached 305, with 14,637 confirmed cases. ( AP: Mark Schiefelbein )

Ms Zeng said getting to the airport was smooth because Australian officials helped organise passes to get through roadblocks in Wuhan, but getting three small children to wear their masks in the middle of an epidemic was not easy.

"It looks like now the kids are exposed to germs everywhere," she said.

"I'm really nervous. It's out of control. It will be a long journey."

Footage posted on Chinese social media showed an Australian staff member comforting a crying child who was standing in a long line of people waiting to board the plane.

The coronavirus death toll has now reached 361, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases, including 12 so far in Australia.

On Sunday, the Philippines reported the first death related to coronavirus outside of China.

Crew taking health precautions

Qantas will soon join a growing list of international airlines to suspend flights in and out of China. ( ABC News: Natasha Johnson )

Qantas said all the crew members on the flight were volunteers.

They will spend most of the flight sealed on an upper deck.

Mr Joyce said the crew were all wearing gloves and medical-grade masks.

Mr Joyce said he was "proud" of the crew members who volunteered for the flight.

"They are inspirational because they have done this to help Australians in need," he told the ABC.

"There are a lot of children and elderly passengers onboard. We needed to get them out of Wuhan."

After the flight, the aircraft will return to Sydney for two to three days of "deep cleaning" by a specialist team.

"Even the cushions of every seat are taken off and cleaned, so it's quite extensive and we believe more than meets the needs to make sure the aircraft is safe going forward," Mr Joyce said.

While the flight has been subsidised by the Government, Mr Joyce said Qantas would cover additional costs including providing domestic flights home to evacuees at the end of the quarantine period.

Preparations underway on Christmas Island

The evacuees will spend two weeks at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre with a team of doctors and nurses. ( Supplied: NCCTRC )

Once they reach RAAF Base Learmonth, the evacuees will undergo medical checks before being transferred to smaller charter flights that will take them on the four-hour flight to Christmas Island.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook said the health checks could take some time, and passengers could be on the ground in Learmonth overnight.

Any passengers who need immediate medical help will be transferred immediately to Perth.

The Qantas crew will not be required to join the passengers in quarantine.

The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) has been preparing the Christmas Island centre for the arrival of the evacuees.

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The NCCTRC has posted online photos of the 24 clinicians and logistics specialists from across Australia who will work with the evacuees, saying they are among "the most experienced in deploying internationally to health emergencies".

Once they arrive on Christmas Island, chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said the plan was to quarantine them in small family groups.

"Obviously you can't separate families. [We] will try and keep people in small groups and avoid close contact with others so that if anyone does get sick, we limit any necessary further quarantine," he said.

'Everyone's staying indoors'

Moko Yong, an Australian citizen in Wuhan who is planning to take the second evacuation flight in the coming days, said staying in the locked-down city was not really an option.

"If you stay here, say you need to buy food, you're only able to ride a share-bike to the supermarket," he said.

"Everyone's staying indoors. The streets are quiet. There are parts of the city with a high number of infection cases that are blocked off too."

Finding an alternative way home also looks increasingly difficult.

Australia joined the US and Singapore over the weekend in barring Chinese citizens from entering the country, along with travellers who had recently been to China.

Australian citizens or those with Australian spouses or families can still fly home, but Qantas will soon join a growing list of international airlines to suspend flights in and out of China.

New South Wales Health said more than 1,000 passengers who flew into Sydney from mainland China on Sunday were tested for coronavirus.

The number of people being tested is increasing and authorities are asking anyone returning from China, not just the Hubei province, to isolate themselves for 14 days.

New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant said of those tested so far, only seven cases had been referred on for further assessment.

"It is in all likelihood those patients will have other causes for their mild respiratory symptoms," she said.

"We're taking a very precautionary approach because we know that this virus has a broad presentation in terms from milder disease to more severe disease, so we'll have the results back on those individuals later today."