Australian and New Zealand travellers caught up in the hantavirus outbreak will undergo three weeks’ quarantine north-east of Perth, part of compulsory orders to be issued by the federal government.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said four Australians citizens and one permanent resident would be taken from Perth to the Bullsbrook quarantine facility, next to the Pearce air force base. The group will be accompanied by one New Zealand citizen who will undergo quarantine in Australia.
About 45km outside Perth, Bullsbrook is one of a series of containment facilities built during the Covid-19 pandemic and run by the federal government.
None of the passengers were showing symptoms of the virus, which is spread by rodents and can cause serious infections in humans.
Speaking with reporters on Monday afternoon, Butler said hantavirus – which has spread among passengers on board the MV Hondius cruise ship – “is not a virus with pandemic potential”.
But he said a careful public health response was needed.
“We also have a responsibility to those passengers to bring them home and to protect them from any risk, no matter how small, of potentially transmitting the virus without knowing it.
“These arrangements discharge those responsibilities.”
The group, which includes residents of Queensland and New South Wales, will be flown on a commercial jet from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and undergo regular testing once in Australia.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailTesting will be conducted by Melbourne’s Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat), as well as the federal heath department and the newly established Australian Centre for Disease Control are coordinating the operation, in consultation with the states and the New Zealand government.
The flight was expected to leave Tenerife at 5pm local time on Monday, the last to leave the Canary Islands. The passengers will be accompanied by flight and medical crew in full personal protective equipment.
The ship, carrying 146 people, arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning after three people died of the virus and eight others became ill. Passengers and crew were confined to their cabins to help stop the spread of the virus.
Butler said the initial three-week quarantine period could be extended, but decisions on further protections were yet to be made by federal authorities and state and territory chief health officers. It is possible the passengers could be required to undertake further quarantine at home after leaving Western Australia.
He said the Australians and New Zealanders faced the longest flight home, in the smallest plane.
“Obviously, they’ve been stuck on this ship for almost two weeks now, with this hanging over them; this has obviously been a really terrible situation for all of them, and my sympathy goes to them,” he said.
The plan replaces moves to transport passengers to the NSW biocontainment centre at Westmead hospital in Sydney.
Butler said it was appropriate for the federal government to lead quarantine arrangements. Hantavirus will be legally designated as a human disease under the Biosecurity Act in the next 24 hours to facilitate the government’s response.
“My very strong view, and the view of our government, is that quarantine and return arrangements should be the subject of a national decision, rather than separate state government decisions,” he said.
Dfat has consular officers on the ground in the Canary Islands to coordinate response efforts for Australians. The affected passengers took part in a phone meeting with Australian officials on Sunday night.
The evacuated passengers will be prevented from coming into contact with the general public on landing in Perth and will be moved directly from the charter flight to transportation that will take them directly to quarantine.
Other countries are taking similar precautions for repatriated passengers from the cruise.
In France, passengers from the ship will be quarantined in hospital for 72 hours for a full assessment before they are sent home for 45 days in isolation with monitoring in place. That monitoring will include regular follow-up for six weeks, which corresponds to the maximum potential incubation for a hantavirus infection.
In the UK, passengers will be taken to an isolation facility for similar assessments over 72 hours. Officials will then determine if they can isolate at home, or at another suitable location based on their living arrangements.
Hantavirus, a group of viruses that are carried by rodents, can cause serious infection in humans, who are usually infected through contact with infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that infection can cause a range of illnesses from severe disease to death.
But transmission between humans is rare and only seen in settings with close, prolonged contact. The WHO noted recently that the threat to the global population remained low, and the Australian Centre for Disease Control said the risk of a widespread outbreak such as Covid-19 or influenza remained very low.
