{"id":676670,"date":"2026-05-17T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676670\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:12:10","slug":"major-update-for-aussies-in-quarantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676670\/","title":{"rendered":"Major update for Aussies in quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The six passengers currently undergoing quarantine in Western Australia have had their hantavirus test results returned.<\/p>\n

Four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and a New Zealander are currently holed up in a quarantine facility in Bullsbrook after being evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship which was exposed to hantavirus, killing three people and infecting several others on board.<\/p>\n

The group of repatriated passengers were flown back to Australian soil after being flown from Spain to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\"Cruise<\/p>\n

The six passengers currently undergoing quarantine in Western Australia have had their hantavirus test results returned. Photo by Chris McGrath\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The six passengers landed at the RAAF Base Pearce near Perth on Friday, where they were whisked away into strict quarantine.<\/p>\n

They will spend three weeks in the facility, which Health Minister Mark Butler said was the \u201cstrongest\u201d reaction in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the strongest quarantine response of any country that is taking passengers back from this cruise ship,\u201d he told the ABC last week.<\/p>\n

\"Australians<\/p>\n

The group returned home on Tuesday. Photo by Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A Department of Health, Disability and Ageing spokesman confirmed the six passengers had undergone a blood test for the Andes virus \u2013 all of which have returned a negative result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian Government\u2019s priority remains the health and safety of the community and the wellbeing of the repatriated passengers,\u201d they told NewsWire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll passengers from the MV Hondius remain well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir blood tests returned negative results for Andes virus, and none have developed symptoms since arriving in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HEALTH<\/p>\n

Health Minister Mark Butler said the quarantine arrangements were the strongest in the world. Picture: NewsWire \/ Martin Ollman.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said the passengers were being managed \u201cunder precautionary quarantine arrangements with appropriate clinical oversight\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll individuals involved in the repatriation were managed under strict infection prevention and control protocols, including the use of personal protective equipment,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said there was no health risk for the Australian community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has no cases of hantavirus,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The six passengers currently undergoing quarantine in Western Australia have had their hantavirus test results returned. Four Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,20731,44,87017,3439],"class_list":["post-676670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mark-butler","tag-news","tag-quarantine","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676670","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=676670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}