Australia charters flight to bring nationals home from hantavirus-stricken luxury cruise | Australia news
Australia will repatriate four citizens and one permanent resident from the MV Hondius, the ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, on a charter flight due to land in Perth on Tuesday.
The ship carrying 146 people arrived in Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, on Sunday morning after three people died from the virus and eight others fell ill. Passengers and crew were confined to their cabins to stop the spread of the virus.
An Australian government spokesman said the group of five would travel on a charter flight with medical staff to monitor them and provide assistance if necessary. A New Zealand citizen will also travel on the plane.
The flight will depart Tenerife at 17:00 local time on Monday, the last departure from the Canary Islands.
Australians and permanent residents live in New South Wales and Queensland, and the government is finalizing quarantine regulations that will be the responsibility of the states to administer.
“The Australian government’s number one priority is the safety of passengers and the Australian community,” the spokesman said. “The Australian government is working closely with state authorities to coordinate arrival, health and transport arrangements. Quarantine and health arrangements are managed by states in line with public health requirements.”
When evacuated passengers land in Perth, they will be prevented from contact with the public and will be transferred directly from the charter flight to the transportation vehicle that will take them directly to their quarantine location.
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt told ABC News on Monday that the incident had clearly become a “terrible situation” for Australian travellers, adding that appropriate quarantine arrangements would be in place.
“We want to make sure Australians get the care they need in this situation,” Watt said. “This is not a situation that people have deliberately gotten themselves into. And I think all Australians want to see each other looked after in this kind of situation.”
Hantavirus, a group of viruses carried by rodents, can cause serious infections in humans who become infected, usually through contact with infected rodent urine, feces, or saliva. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that infection can cause a range of illnesses, from serious illness to death.
However Transmission between humans is rare and is only seen in environments with close and prolonged contact. The WHO recently noted that the threat to the global population remains low, and the Australian Center for Disease Control said the risk of a widespread outbreak such as Covid-19 or influenza remains very low.
