90-Second Read: 6 passengers from Hantavirus-hit ship arrive in Australia for 3-week quarantine

Six passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak have arrived in Australia for a three-week quarantine. The passengers, crew and a doctor who accompanied them were taken by bus to the nearby Bullsbrook quarantine facility. Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the government would implement one of world's strongest quarantine responses to the outbreak.

The Gulfstream long-range business jet carrying them from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce outside the Western Australia state capital, Perth. The five Australians and one New Zealand citizen will spend the three-week quarantine period in the facility that had remained largely unused since it was built in 2022 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The six passengers all tested negative for the virus before they left the Netherlands, had been assessed by a doctor during the flight and would undergo more detailed health assessments at Bullsbrook, Butler said.

The MV Hondius ship was on a cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic and then to several isolated islands in the South Atlantic Ocean when the Hantavirus outbreak was identified. Three people among the 11 cases from the ship have died. A decision had yet to be made on what precautions should be taken for the remainder of the 42-day period of potential incubation that the World Health Organization had identified, Butler said.