Rescued Australians From Hantavirus-said to Arrive in Perth Tomorrow

A group of Australian passengers who were aboard the Hantavirus-infected MV Hondius cruise ship will finally return home tomorrow.

A repatriation aircraft is now en route to The Netherlands to rescue the stranded five Australians and one New Zealand national, scheduled to land there at 4pm AEST.

They will then board the charter flight, which was secured by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT), at 5.30pm.

The passengers are due to arrive at RAAF Base Pearce, around 35 kilometres north of Perth, sometime tomorrow, before they undergo a three-week quarantine at a facility at Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience.

Health officials will then review the arrangement after the three-week period ends.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a 42-day quarantine.

The Bullsbrook centre was commissioned by the federal government in mid-2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was one of three such facilities designed to accommodate returning Australians, with a similar 500-bed centre built in Pinkenba, Brisbane, and a larger 1000-bed centre in Mickleham, Melbourne.

Health Minister Mark Butler said all six remain in “good health”, have tested negative for Hantavirus and are showing no symptoms.

All flight passengers and crew aboard the charter flight will be dressed in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and will follow strict quarantine procedures during the flight and once they deboard.

Medical professionals will be on board the flight to Australia to monitor the six and provide assistance where necessary.

Three of the Australian passengers are from NSW and two are from Queensland.

The six passengers were initially told they could spend up to 48 hours transiting through The Netherlands under strict protocols before flying on to Perth.

But authorities struggled to find a country willing to allow the charter plane to stop for refuelling on its way to Perth.

Butler could not confirm where the plane will stop for fuel.

The health minister added that although the virus was “very, very rare” and human-to-human transmission was “rarer still”, he was still taking a “precautionary approach”.

He said the government would ensure the repatriation of the passengers was undertaken “very safely”.

There are now 11 confirmed cases of Hantavirus, all of which are from passengers or crew members on the MV Hondius.

Three people have died after contracting the deadly, rat-borne illness.

It was the first-ever case of a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.