‘Difficult’ mission to repatriate Australian hantavirus cruise passengers en route to long Perth quarantine

Australians and New Zealanders who were aboard the deadly hantavirus-hit cruise ship will undergo the first three weeks of their quarantine at the Bullsbrook national resilience centre, just outside Perth. The flight crew that brings them back to the country will have to join them, Australia’s health minister, Mark Butler, said. He confirmed a last-minute change of plan will see the six people who had been travelling aboard the MV Hondius spend up to two days in the Netherlands instead of returning direct from Tenerife. They landed in the Netherlands on Tuesday morning, Australian time, on the first leg of a complex operation to repatriate them, Butler said. There they were greeted – at a safe distance – by Australian ambassador Greg Fench. Bullsbrook national resilience centre. Photograph: Multiplex They were taken to a quarantine hotel before a charter flight takes them to Australia 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. …