Hantavirus cruise ship passengers arrive in Perth to be quarantined for three weeks

A plane carrying six passengers from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship has touched down in Perth after a repatriation flight from the Netherlands.

Jessica Evensen
The Nightly
Five Australians and one New Zealander are being repatriated from the Netherlands following a Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that has resulted in 11 confirmed cases and three deaths.

Australian passengers from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship are on their way to quarantine, having departed RAAF Base Pearce in a minivan.

Decked out in yellow PPE and facemasks, one of the six returned passengers offered a friendly wave to media camped outside airbase as their white minivan began the short trip to the nearby Centre for National Resiliance, where they will quarantine for at least the next three weeks.

The five Australians and one New Zealander touched down at the Bullsbrook airbase about 11am on Friday after a repatriation flight from the Netherlands.

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By 11.45am, having undergone immediate health testing before exiting the plane and having their passports stamped by Border Force officials, they were on the road for the 7km trip to the quarantine facility.

A second van carrying aircrew and a doctor — who also must quarantine for two weeks — will follow shortly.

No passengers or aircrew were showing any symptoms of the virus when they departed the Netherlands on Thursday.

The travellers were among 147 people aboard the MV Hondius when a rare case of the Andes strain of hantavirus was detected in Johannesburg on May 2 after a British passenger was evacuated after falling ill.

More to come.

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