By Casey Ho, ABC
The repatriation plane flying through a rain band prior to touching down in Perth.
Photo: ABC News
Six people who were on board a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have landed in Australia.
The five Australians and one New Zealander arrived on a repatriation flight that had left the Netherlands late Thursday, where the passengers had been waiting after disembarking the MV Hondius.
The plane landed at RAAF Base Pearce, about 40 kilometres north-east of Perth.
Screening and quarantine
The six passengers had tested negative for hantavirus before the flight, and were asymptomatic, but will undergo further health screening.
The ABC understands the passengers will be tested and processed by the Australian Border Force, before being transferred to the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience under police escort, where they will quarantine for three weeks.
The flight crew are expected to also quarantine at the facility voluntarily for two weeks.
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries staff will decontaminate the plane used for the repatriation flight.
What’s next for the passengers?
Health Minister Mark Butler said on Thursday that further arrangements were being organised beyond the three weeks, as the incubation period for hantavirus was about 42 days.
“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,” Butler said.
The five Australians are from New South Wales and Queensland. Butler said both state governments would be engaged to manage the latter half of the incubation period.
The WHO’s latest update on the hantavirus outbreak, linked to the cruise ship, said 11 cases and three deaths had been reported.
Eight of the cases had been laboratory-confirmed, while two were deemed “probable”, and one was inconclusive.
The two latest confirmed cases were reported from France and Spain – both people were passengers of the MV Hondius.
-ABC