Australians evacuated from a deadly cruise ship outbreak are stranded overseas after their journey home hit a major roadblock, leaving them stuck in the Netherlands longer than planned.<\/p>\n
The group of four Australian citizens remain in transit in the Netherlands as officials scramble to secure the final leg of their journey back to Perth.<\/p>\n
The six travellers had already left the quarantined MV Hondius cruise ship and flown from Tenerife in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands on a chartered government flight, arriving in the Netherlands early yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
But despite a plane now being secured to bring them home, authorities have been unable to find a country willing to allow the aircraft to refuel during the long trip to Western Australia, creating an unexpected delay.<\/p>\n
They were originally told their transit through the Netherlands would last no more than 48 hours under strict health protocols. That deadline will now be relaxed as arrangements continue.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr Greg French, met the passengers at a distance upon arrival due to health precautions, while medical staff are set to accompany them on the eventual flight home.<\/p>\n
Once they land at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth, they will be transferred immediately to the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience for a mandatory three-week quarantine period.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Mark Butler said the virus was \u201cvery, very rare\u201d and human-to-human transmission was \u201crarer still\u201d, but authorities were taking a \u201cprecautionary approach\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we move into that three-week period we will be seeking further advice,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do make no apology for the fact this is one of the stronger approaches you\u2019d see about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hantavirus will be listed under Australia\u2019s Biosecurity Act before the group arrives, enabling strict quarantine orders.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends monitoring for up to 42 days due to the virus\u2019s long incubation period.<\/p>\n
The evacuation comes after an unprecedented outbreak of the rodent-borne disease on board the expedition cruise ship, which has killed three people and infected multiple passengers.<\/p>\n
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged calm<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not another Covid. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn\u2019t be scared, and they shouldn\u2019t panic,\u201d Mr Ghebreyesus said.<\/p>\n
Health officials stress the virus is usually spread through rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people, though the Andes strain detected on the ship may spread in rare circumstances.<\/p>\n
Global concern remains after a quarantined Italian airline passenger who travelled near an infected cruise traveller was tested for the virus, fuelling fears of possible \u201cgeneration-three\u201d cases if further infections emerge.<\/p>\n
For now, authorities hope the outbreak remains contained to the ship as governments continue closely monitoring passengers worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians evacuated from a deadly cruise ship outbreak are stranded overseas after their journey home hit a major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9372,9383,1537,9384,9392,9397,9367,9374,18,8590,9394,9385,9382,7386,8119,9379,9376,9381,9389,9395,9378,9387,6,9366,8147,7638,9364,9373,9386,9371,9377,9370,9380,9396,667,9375,9388,9398,7390,9368,9393,9365,9391,9390,9369],"class_list":["post-11200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-anxious-wait","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-citizens","tag-australian-permanent-resident","tag-chartered-government-flight","tag-chris-mcgrath","tag-europe","tag-evacuation-flight","tag-eventual-flight-home","tag-expedition-cruise-ship","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hantavirus-outbreak","tag-health-officials","tag-health-precautions","tag-incubation-period","tag-infected-cruise-traveller","tag-italian-airline-passenger","tag-journey-home","tag-leave-virus","tag-mark-butler","tag-netherlands","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-zealand","tag-news-headlines","tag-newswire-news","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-quarantined-italian-airline","tag-richard-marles","tag-rodent-droppings","tag-ship-evacuation","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-strict-health-protocols","tag-strict-quarantine-orders","tag-sydney","tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","tag-three-week-quarantine-period","tag-trip-home","tag-western-australia","tag-western-europe","tag-westmead-hospital","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}