A chartered flight has departed from the Netherlands, carrying six individuals back to Australia, among them four Australian citizens, one permanent resident, and a New Zealand citizen.
All passengers on board have tested negative for the hantavirus and are traveling under the supervision of medical professionals.
The aircraft is expected to land at RAAF Base Pearce, located roughly 35 kilometers north of Perth, around 11 a.m. local time (1 p.m. AEST) on Friday.
Throughout the journey, both passengers and crew will adhere to stringent health protocols, donning full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and following rigorous quarantine regulations during and after the flight.
Upon arrival, the group will be transported to the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience, where they will be subject to a three-week quarantine period.
Once this period concludes, health officials will reassess the situation to determine any further necessary actions.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a 42-day quarantine.
The Bullsbrook centre was commissioned by the federal government in mid-2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was one of three such facilities designed to accommodate returning Australians, with a similar 500-bed centre built in Pinkenba, Brisbane, and a larger 1000-bed centre in Mickleham, Melbourne.
Three of the Australian passengers are from NSW and two are from Queensland.
The six passengers were initially told they could spend up to 48 hours transiting through the Netherlands under strict protocols before flying on to Perth.
But authorities struggled to find a country willing to allow the charter plane to stop for refuelling on its way to Perth.
Health Minister Mark Butler could not confirm where the plane would stop for fuel.
He added that although the virus was “very, very rare” and human-to-human transmission was “rarer still”, he was still taking a “precautionary approach”.
There are now 11 confirmed cases of Hantavirus, all of which are from passengers or crew members on the MV Hondius.
Three people have died after contracting the deadly, rat-borne illness.
It was the first-ever case of a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.
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