Hantavirus cruise ship passengers headed for Australia arrive in Netherlands before Bullsbrook quarantine
Australian and New Zealand passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which contracted hantavirus, arrived in the Netherlands for quarantine before being repatriated.
The group of six returning to Australia includes three people from New South Wales and two Queenslanders and a New Zealander, four of whom are Australian citizens and one is a permanent resident.
The group will spend at least three weeks in a quarantine facility at Bullsbrook, north of Perth, so they can be monitored for any signs of the deadly virus, which could take weeks to emerge, Health Minister Mark Butler said on Monday.
New arrangements were made overnight for the group to stop in the Netherlands due to reported problems getting a charter flight to Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands.
The Australian Government is working to repatriate the group within the next 48 hours and they will land at RAAF Base Pearce later this week.
However, their planned return remains dependent on operational conditions.
Mr Butler said on Monday the Australian government should hire crew members willing to volunteer to assist during journeys Down Under.
Speaking on Breakfast TV on Tuesday, he also said the crew would need to quarantine when they return to Australia.
The group will be transferred to Bullsbrook National Resilience Centre, approximately 7km from RAAF Base Pearce.
The $400 million facility was built in 2022 as the COVID pandemic subsided and was used only once before as an emergency shelter during a December 2023 wildfire.
Mr Butler said three people died and eight were infected on the infected ship near Tenerife, but said it was “very difficult” for the virus to spread from person to person.
Mr Butler said the group heading to Perth was currently asymptomatic but promised regular testing would be carried out.
Tests from the batch in WA will be sent to Melbourne’s Doherty Institute, the only facility capable of performing PCR or serology testing for hantavirus.
The virus is usually spread by rodents, but in rare cases it can be transmitted from person to person in close contact.
Australian travelers were among 147 people on board the MV Hondius, which detected a rare case of the Andean strain when a British man fell ill in Johannesburg on May 2.
This comes after a 70-year-old Dutch man fell ill and died on board on April 6, just five days after the ship left Argentina.
