Australians and New Zealanders who were on a cruise ship impacted by hantavirus have been rerouted to the Netherlands due to a last-minute change in plans during a challenging mission, according to the health minister.
Upon returning to Australia, these travelers will commence the initial three weeks of a 42-day quarantine period at the Centre for National Resilience located in Bullsbrook, near Perth. The flight crew responsible for their return will also be required to quarantine, either in Australia or in their home country, as stated by Australia’s Health Minister, Mark Butler.
Instead of flying directly back from Tenerife, the six passengers from the MV Hondius will temporarily stay in the Netherlands for up to two days.
Arriving in the Netherlands on Tuesday morning, Australian time, marked the beginning of a complicated repatriation effort, Butler explained. Upon landing, they were met – maintaining a safe distance – by Greg Fench, the Australian ambassador.
Butler reported on Tuesday that all passengers were in “good health and relatively good spirits.” However, he noted that new cases of hantavirus, including a French national in critical condition, highlighted that there remains “a relatively low risk, but still a risk of transmission among the cruise ship passengers.”
The group has been moved to a quarantine hotel and is scheduled to fly to Australia on a charter flight later this week.
“This is a difficult arrangement to make,” Butler told ABC News on Tuesday morning.
“You’ve got to have crew that are willing to isolate at the end of the flight, you’ve got to have a flight that has some refuelling arrangements put in place between the Netherlands and Australia … And it’s important that we’ve put those quarantine arrangements in place, ready to go when they do land in Australia.”
The government nevertheless expected the four Australians, one permanent resident and one New Zealand citizen to be back in Australia by the end of the week.
“They’re only able to stay in the Netherlands for a maximum of 48 hours. So, over the next 24 to 48 hours, we expect them to start their flight back to Australia,” Butler said.
Butler said he was confident the flight could be organised, though he didn’t rule out that it might require a military plane.
Medical personnel will be on board the flight, which is expected to land at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth, according to government advice.
The travellers will then be transported to quarantine facilities at the Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook, where they will isolate for the first three weeks of a 42-day quarantine period. The centre will be staffed by medical personnel from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre in Darwin, which was set up in 2002 in response to the Bali bombing.
“It has very high experience in dealing with infectious disease emergencies and a range of other medical emergencies, both here in Australia and across the region,” Butler said.
Flight crew will also quarantine at Bullsbrook or in another country if they decide to immediately fly out, Butler said.
None of the passengers have displayed symptoms of hantavirus, and no other Australian citizens or permanent residents were known to be on board the ship.
Later, at a press conference, Butler said hantavirus had been listed under Australia’s Biosecurity Act, to allow him to make quarantine orders.
He said the orders “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 over the other side of the world”.
The World Health Organization has recommended but not mandated a 42-day quarantine for the travellers due to the long incubation period of hantavirus. The virus can cause flu-like symptoms leading to respiratory arrest and death in some cases.
Butler said Australia’s measures were “probably the strongest quarantine response of any country that is taking passengers back from this cruise ship”.
“Most countries are only requiring their returning citizens to go into some sort of centralised quarantine, like a hospital or a centre like the one we’re using in Western Australia, for two or three days,” he said.
Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed on Monday that all guests and some crew who had been on the ship had been either repatriated to their home countries or to the Netherlands. Twenty-five crew members remain on board, as does the body of a German guest who died on the ship on 2 May.
