The federal government announced on Wednesday that Australians who were stuck in China's Hubei province - the epicentre of the virus - would be transferred to Christmas Island for quarantine.

About 600 Australians are registered as being in the province.

Rural Australians for Refugees member Christine Cummins said the government's decision to reuse the Christmas Island detention centre was odd.

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"It just throws up so many different images," she said. "We're now looking at our own citizens that we're forcing into a detention centre."

The Tamil family from Biloela has also been detained on Christmas Island since August.

Kopika and her younger sister Tharunicaa were born in Biloela in central Queensland, but the government has rejected claims for refugee status.

Ms Cummins said she understood the family were placed in the outskirts of the township at a separate facility to the detention centre.

But she said if the family, any of the evacuees, or any of the 2000 Christmas Island residents were exposed to the coronavirus, it could be a potentially dangerous situation.

"What I find intriguing is that yes there is a facility there to use, but if there's an emergency, there's only a basic hospital facility," she said.

"A really critically unwell person would have to be flown to Perth anyway for intensive care."

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Ms Cummins said the journey to Australia could be about eight hours by the time a plane was located.

"I understand what they are looking to do is isolate people who may or may not carry the virus," she said. 'But if they are carrying it, the treatment is still several thousand kilometres away.

"What happens to those people if one of these people in quarantine have the virus?"

Ms Cummins said the attention on Christmas Island would only reiterate the plight of the refugees and asylum seekers still in offshore detention.

"Until we can get this properly sorted, we shouldn't ignore the fact that there are people on Manus Island and Nauru, and there's a little family still locked on Christmas Island," she said.

"We have to keep fighting to get a human rights policy back on the political agenda. There's been enough suffering. Having people locked up for seven years is far too long."

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