A Cork woman is “delighted” to be home, her friend has said – but she’s now facing 42 days in quarantine after being aboard the cruise which had a hantavirus outbreak.

Ann Lane, from Co Cork, and her travelling companion, from Dublin, were the only Irish people on the MV Hondius cruise ship. The two women are currently isolating at an HSE facility after being flown on the government jet from Tenerife to Baldonnell Airport in Dublin on Sunday night.

The MV Hondius had an outbreak of hantavirus, resulting in three deaths. Independent Senator Aubrey McCarthy, a friend of 80-year-old Ms Lane, who worked as a personal assistant to former president Mary Robinson and Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik, said she is “all good and absolutely delighted to be back”.

He told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with David McCullagh: “It was a huge relief to Ann and all her friends to see that she made it safely back. We are quick to criticise the Irish when they get it wrong, but this was second to none. They executed a perfect mission and it got them safely back to Ireland.”

Mr McCarthy said the two women are “very positive” and that Ms Lane is a “very strong lady”. He continued: “It must have been psychologically exhausting sitting on a ship not knowing what’s going to happen.

“You’re hearing the medical updates, the texts from home about the uncertainty on the virus, and I’m sure that takes a toll on anybody, and I know the emotional sides have a huge toll, but being back on home soil, even though you have to quarantine, you are physically safe and at least you are home.”

Asked how his friend will cope with being in quarantine for 42 days, the senator said: “She will absolutely play by the rules. This is her sixth expedition and her fourth time to Antarctica, it’s important now that she gets proper medical guidance.

“It’s important that she also gets privacy during that time. Imagine you are going away on a trip, you don’t realise how valuable home is until you can’t get there.” Some 149 passengers and crew had been stranded on the cruise ship since the deadly hantavirus was detected on it as it sailed from South America across the Atlantic Ocean on April 11.

Five people are confirmed to have contracted the disease on board, and three of them have died, in what has now become a major public health emergency.