4 days ago
17
Australian passengers returning from the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will be quarantined at the Bullsbrook Quarantine Centre near Perth in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading.
An Australian flight will arrive in the Canary Islands on Monday to rescue passengers before the four Australians and one permanent resident who were on board the MV Hondius are flown to Perth on a Commonwealth-assisted flight.
A New Zealand citizen will also be on board the flight.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said Western Australia was going to be the first port of call for the passengers on that flight.
“Those Australians and that New Zealander will be landed at RAAF base Pearce and those six people will be transferred immediately to that quarantine facility directly next door to the RAAF base,” he said.
“People might recall this is one of the quarantine facilities, or the Centres for National Resilience that were set up at the back end of the last pandemic.
“It is still there. It is currently owned by the Commonwealth government and will be operated in partnership.”
Butler announced that hantavirus will be listed as a human disease under the Biosecurity Act to allow for a national, uniform quarantine response rather than a state response as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That listing will happen over the next 24 hours before the return of those Australians and that New Zealander,” he said.
“The virus also has quite a long incubation period, which appears to run up to 42 days.
“So any question of isolation or quarantine for people potentially exposed to the virus obviously involves quite a long period compared to other viruses.
“Although cases of human-to-human transmission are rare, there obviously has been human-to-human transition on this cruise ship.”
Butler said the World Health Organisation has reported eight cases, including six that appear to have been the result of transmission from the two original patients.
“The federal government, of course, is undertaking the medical evacuation of them,” he said.
“My understanding is that they’ll be arriving in Perth, and my public health teams stand ready to assist them with whatever challenges or mission outcomes they’re looking for.”
When pressed if the community is at any risk of contamination from the passengers, Cook replied that he was confident with the arrangements the Commonwealth had in place.
