Passengers of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius gesture in a military bus after disembarking in the port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 11, 2026.
Photo: JORGE GUERRERO / AFP
Six passengers from a cruise ship at the centre of the deadly hantavirus outbreak are “in good health”, as the Australian government remains hopeful it will finalise plans to repatriate them within 48 hours.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said a French national was in hospital in a critical condition following the deaths of three other passengers from the rodent-borne illness on the MV Hondius.
Butler said five Australians and one New Zealander are “all in good health” and in “relatively good spirits” despite their ordeal.
The passengers arrived in the Netherlands around 10.30am NZT on Tuesday and will be medically assessed while in hotel quarantine.
They will then be flown to the Royal Australian Air Force military air base in Perth, before being “transported immediately” to the nearby Bullsbrook quarantine centre.
“These are complex arrangements given the distance between the Netherlands and Australia,” Butler said on Tuesday morning.
He said authorities also needed to find a charter company and crew willing to operate the flight under strict quarantine and isolation requirements.
“We are confident they will be finalised within the 48 hour time frame the Netherlands government have given us.”
The six passengers will isolate at the Bullsbrook facility for at least three weeks.
Butler said health authorities would review quarantine arrangements during that period, with further quarantine measures possible to adhere to the World Health Organisation’s recommended 42-day time frame for the hantavirus.
He said Australia had put in place the strongest quarantine arrangements in the world of the two dozen countries repatriating passengers from the cruise ship.
“Those quarantine arrangements, I am very confident, will ensure that Australians can all have confidence that there is no risk to the broader Australian community from this tragedy that’s happened on a cruise ship on the other side of the world.”
Australia has four quarantine centres – known officially as ‘Centres for National Resilience’ – three of which were built during the Covid-19 pandemic at a cost of AUD$1.37 billion.
This will be the first time the Bullsbrook facility has been used for quarantining returned travellers since it opened.
– ABC