Australian authorities will charter an aircraft to evacuate from the cruise ship MV Hondius — where an outbreak of hantavirus has been detected — the country’s citizens on board, the government announced today.
Eight people, no longer on the cruise ship, have fallen ill, according to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) report on Friday, six of whom have been confirmed to be infected with hantavirus. Three passengers have died: a Dutch couple and a German woman.
Australian Environment Minister Murray Watt said four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and one New Zealander would be repatriated.
“This will be done via an Australian government-backed flight and we expect these people to return to Australia soon,” Watt told reporters in Canberra. “As we speak we are finalising arrangements for the quarantine” of the passengers, he added.
It is not known if any of the MV Hondius passengers returning to Australia have fallen ill or are showing symptoms of the hantavirus.
For her part, New Zealand Public Health Officer Corina Gray said today that the country’s health services have the capacity to support quarantine measures if needed.
Spain, France and the US have evacuated their citizens from the cruise ship, which is docked near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, officials said. One U.S. citizen has tested positive for the chantavirus, while another is showing mild symptoms.
Spain’s health ministry has announced that the last two flights to evacuate the MV Hondius passengers, one from Australia and one from the Netherlands, will depart this afternoon local time.
The WHO has recommended that all cruise ship passengers remain quarantined for 42 days, while health experts have called for calm, stressing to the public still fresh from the trauma of the covid-19 pandemic that the hantavirus is far less contagious and dangerous.
This virus, which is usually transmitted by rodents but can be passed from person to person in rare cases of close contact, was first identified on 2 May in Johannesburg in a British man on board the MV Hondius who became ill 21 days after another passenger on the cruise ship died.
