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

Passengers arrive on a second evacuation flight from Tenerife at Eindhoven air base, the Netherlands. The flight, organised by Australia, carried several Australian passengers, a New Zealander and a British passenger from the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak. Photograph: Rob Engelaar/EPA

Australians and New Zealanders who were aboard the deadly hantavirus-hit cruise ship have been taken to the Netherlands after a last-minute change of plan on what the health minister called a “difficult” mission.

Once back in Australia they will undergo the first three weeks of a 42-day quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook, just outside Perth. The flight crew that brings them back to the country will also have to quarantine, either in Australia or at their home base in another country, Australia’s health minister, Mark Butler, said.