Australia quarantines 6 passengers over hantavirus after evacuation from Netherlands

Six people who were aboard a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus outbreak were taken to a quarantine center in Australia after arriving on a repatriation flight from the Netherlands, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Friday.

The group includes four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and one New Zealander.

They had tested negative and showed no symptoms before departure.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said they "remain in good health."

The group will undergo further testing, including additional PCR tests, and a three-week quarantine period.

Butler said earlier that additional monitoring arrangements were being considered given hantavirus' longer incubation period of about 42 days.

"We're not going to let anything happen that doesn't align with World Health Organization (WHO) advice about the incubation period for this virus," he said.

The flight crew and a doctor on board are also expected to voluntarily quarantine at the facility for two weeks. Butler said everyone on board remained in full PPE throughout the flight.

The aircraft used for the evacuation flight will be decontaminated.

The WHO on May 4 confirmed severe respiratory illness cases aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship as a hantavirus cluster.

Hantavirus is a rare disease usually transmitted through infected rodents or their droppings, though the strain responsible for the current outbreak can also spread between humans.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the outbreak as a Level 3 emergency response, the agency’s lowest emergency activation level.

The outbreak, involving the Andes strain of hantavirus, has resulted in 11 reported cases, including three deaths, according to WHO officials.