{"id":672066,"date":"2026-05-15T07:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672066\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:04:21","slug":"flight-with-australian-and-new-zealand-passengers-from-hantavirus-cruise-ship-arrives-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672066\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight with Australian and New Zealand passengers from hantavirus cruise ship arrives in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six people who were on board a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have landed in Australia.<\/p>\n

The four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and one New Zealander arrived on a repatriation flight that left the Netherlands late Thursday, where the passengers had been waiting after disembarking the MV Hondius.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The plane touched down around 11am WST. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The plane landed at RAAF Base Pearce, about 40 kilometres north-east of Perth, where the six boarded a minibus that took them to the nearby Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience under police escort.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The passengers were taken to the quaratine facility under police escort. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

Passengers wave<\/p>\n

The passengers, wearing full-body protective gear, waved at reporters from the minibus.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The passengers, and the minibus driver, were wearing full-body protective gear.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The six had tested negative for hantavirus before the flight and were asymptomatic, and Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said they “remain in good health”.<\/p>\n

He said they would undergo a detailed health assessment including more PCR tests.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The passengers arrive at the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

The ABC understands the passengers were tested and processed by the Australian Border Force before their transfer to the quarantine centre.<\/p>\n

They will quarantine there for three weeks.<\/p>\n

The flight crew and a doctor on board are expected to also quarantine at the facility voluntarily for two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The minivan carrying the six passengers arrives at the Bullsbrook quarantine centre amid tight security (ABC News: Jo Milios)<\/p>\n

Mr Butler said everyone on board had remained in full PPE throughout the flight.<\/p>\n

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries staff will decontaminate the plane used for the repatriation flight.<\/p>\n

Facility for disease control<\/a><\/p>\n

Nestled away in Perth’s outer fringes this 500-bed facility was built during the COVID-19 pandemic as a quarantine centre, but sat idle for years. Now, a different deadly virus will see it used for its intended purpose.<\/p>\n

What’s next for the passengers?<\/p>\n

Mr Butler said the passengers would be looked after at the quarantine centre by staff flown in from Darwin’s national critical care and trauma response centre.<\/p>\n

He said the rooms housing the passengers had balconies, TVs and wi-fi.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure these passengers would prefer ot be home. I thank them for their cooperation throughout this very difficult ordeal,” the minister said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The Bullsbrook facility where the passengers will quarantine. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

“Our principal responsibility is to keep them safe and we have taken a precautionary approach to that.”<\/p>\n

He said yesterday further arrangements were being organised beyond the three weeks, as the incubation period for hantavirus was about 42 days.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Bullsbrook facility where the six passengers will quarantine.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

“We’re not going to let anything happen that doesn’t align with World Health Organization (WHO) advice about the incubation period for this virus,” Mr Butler said.<\/p>\n

The five Australians are from New South Wales and Queensland. Mr Butler said both state governments would be engaged to manage the latter half of the incubation period.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

The WHO’s latest update on the hantavirus outbreak, linked to the cruise ship, said 11 cases and three deaths had been reported.<\/p>\n

Eight of the cases had been laboratory-confirmed, while two were deemed “probable”, and one was inconclusive.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, at the port of Granadilla de Abona, in Tenerife. (Reuters: Hannah McKay)<\/p>\n

The two latest confirmed cases were reported from France and Spain. Both people were passengers of the MV Hondius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six people who were on board a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,323564,324283,1164,324282,314457,323562,323560,323561,321409,321407,137,315583,20731,314459,1736,46,87017,324284,25962,3853,18558],"class_list":["post-672066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bullsbrook-quarantine","tag-bullsbrook-quarantine-centre","tag-cruise-ship","tag-federal-health-minister","tag-hantavirus","tag-hantavirus-australians","tag-hantavirus-flight","tag-hantavirus-passengers","tag-hantavirus-perth","tag-hantavirus-symptoms","tag-health","tag-hondius","tag-mark-butler","tag-mv-hondius","tag-new-zealand","tag-perth","tag-quarantine","tag-repatriate","tag-wa","tag-who","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}