Australian passengers who were on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship will be ordered to quarantine in Perth for at least three weeks, in what the federal government has declared a “precautionary approach” to keep the community safe. 

Five Australians and one New Zealander will be transported to Western Australia on a government plane in the coming days and will be “immediately transferred” to a quarantine facility.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said “national quarantine arrangements” would be enacted to allow the federal government to take control off the states for quarantine and return arrangements.

“This is a complex operation that often involves a couple of different countries and we’ll be in a position to provide further updates once those flights are finalised,” Mr Butler said.

“An order will then be made for those passengers to be subject to quarantine arrangements at the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience, which is just north east of Perth, next door to RAAF Base Pearce.”

Mr Butler said due to the lengthy potential incubation period for the hantavirus, the passengers may be told to quarantine beyond three weeks.

“Obviously we will be monitoring advice about what should happen beyond those three weeks.

“There is an incubation period of 42 days potentially for this virus, but that incubation or the risk of transmission obviously drops off after the first few weeks. So we’ll be seeking further advice from our chief health officers.”

Mr Butler said he made “no apology” for the quarantine decision.

“This is one of the stronger responses you’ll see around the world.”

What happens once passengers land in Perth?

The passengers will be immediately transferred to the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience when they land at the RAAF base, which is next door.

“I want to stress that our primary responsibility as a government, obviously, is to keep our community safe and healthy,” Mr Butler said.

“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.”

Mr Butler said the passengers will be subject to testing while at the facility, which will be sent to the Doherty Institute in Melbourne for analysis.

The passengers do not currently have any hantavirus symptoms. 

Is hantavirus the next COVID-19?

According to the World Health Organization, human-to-human transmission of hantaviruses is rare.

Infectious diseases expert Glenn Marsh, from the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness said there was no need for Australians to panic about passengers returning to the country.

“Don’t freak out at all, it’s not the next pandemic,” he said.

“This isn’t a virus we really need to worry about at this point. It’s something we need to keep our eye on… but this virus doesn’t transmit easily between people.”

People typically get infected with hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.

But Professor Marsh said it is not highly infectious and won’t spread well, like COVID-19.

“People are more aware of the potential of the next pandemic [and] having lived through a pandemic, people don’t want to do it again.

“We’ve seen outbreaks before of this virus and many similar viruses… that have not made the media at all.

“We have never had a human case for hantavirus in Australia… this isn’t the start of the next pandemic.”

What are the symptoms?

According to the World Health Organization, symptoms can take between one and eight weeks to emerge following exposure.

Depending on the type of hantavirus the person is infected with, symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle aches and gastrointestinal symptoms.

Some types of the virus kill as many as half of those who are infected. Others kill between one and 15 per cent.

There is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine.

It’s not known which type of hantavirus the people on the ship have contracted.

The evacuated passengers will not come into contact with the general population while in quarantine.

“The time it takes for people to show symptoms can be quite long, up to eight weeks even,” Professor Marsh said.

“We also know that people aren’t really infectious to other people unless they’re showing symptoms.”

What happened on the cruise ship?

The virus is suspected of causing the deaths of three people on the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The ship was carrying 88 passengers and 61 crew, according the Oceanwide Expeditions website.

On April 11 a passenger died on board. His body and his wife were disembarked on St Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, on April 24.

On April 27 Oceanwide Expeditions was informed that the man’s wife had died.

Both passengers were Dutch, according to the Oceanwide Expeditions website.

On the same day the man’s wife died another passenger had to be medically evacuated to South Africa. They remain in an intensive care unit in a critical but stable condition.

On May 2, a German passenger died on the ship.

Additional reporting from Courtney Withers