Four Australian citizens and one permanent resident who were stranded onboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius are set to return home on a chartered flight on Tuesday.
The Australian contingent, along with a New Zealand citizen, will depart Tenerife – where the ship is currently docked – on Monday night.
They will land in Perth on Tuesday evening.
The ship, with 146 people onboard, arrived at the Canary Islands on Sunday morning. Passengers and crew were confined to their cabins to stop the spread of the illness.
The individuals, who reside in Queensland and New South Wales, will need to quarantine once they arrive back. The terms of the quarantine are being determined by the Australian government, with implementation dependent on the state.
Three people have now died as a result of the outbreak. The MV Hondius, operated by Dutch tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, was sailing between Argentina and Cape Verde when the outbreak occurred. A Dutch couple – aged 70 and 69 – are among the dead, along with a third passenger from Germany who died on 2 May.
Worryingly, an Australian had already returned home from the ship. Around 23 passengers have already returned to their home countries, with one subsequently testing positive for hantavirus – a disease with a 40 per cent mortality rate.
Four Australians trapped on hantavirus ship MV Hondius off the coast of Africa
