6 passengers from hantavirus-hit ship arrive in Australia for 3-week quarantine

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Six passengers from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak arrived Friday in Australia for a quarantine expected to last at least three weeks.

The Gulfstream long-range business jet carrying them from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce outside the Western Australia state capital, Perth. The passengers, crew and a doctor who accompanied them were taken by bus to the nearby Bullsbrook quarantine facility.

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the government would implement one of world's strongest quarantine responses to the outbreak.

He said passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius who returned to the United States and most European countries would spend a few days in a quarantine center before they were sent home.

"We have taken the decision to take a stronger approach to quarantine arrangements than that because we are determined to ensure there is no risk at all of any transmission of this virus into the Australian community,” Butler told reporters in his hometown of Adelaide.

The five Australians and one New Zealand citizen will spend the three-week quarantine period in the facility that had remained largely unused since it was built in 2022 is response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A decision had yet to be made on what precautions should be taken for the remainder of the 42-day period of potential incubation that the World Health Organization had identified, Butler said.

The six passengers all tested negative for the virus before they left the Netherlands, had been assessed by a doctor during the flight and would undergo more detailed health assessments at Bullsbrook, Butler said.

In America, health officials transferred the two passengers who were originally sent to Atlanta to the National Quarantine Center in Omaha on Thursday. Nebraska Medicine spokeswoman Kayla Thomas said those two were medically cleared to move to the facility here at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, but she wouldn't say whether they tested negative.

Thomas said that health officials were comfortable bringing all the passengers here to Omaha now that no one is being treated in the hospital’s biocontainment unit. Initially one of the passengers had been placed there after he tested positive on the ship, but he has since tested negative for hantavirus.

The MV Hondius ship was on a cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic and then to several isolated islands in the South Atlantic Ocean when the hantavirus outbreak was identified. Three people among the 11 cases from the ship have died.

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

Passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius are driven in a bus after they arrived in Perth, Australia, from the Netherlands on Friday, May 15, 2026. (Aaron Bunch/AAP Image via AP)

A jet carrying passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius arrives at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth, Australia, from the Netherlands on Friday, May 15, 2026. (Aaron Bunch/AAP Image via AP)

SYDNEY (AP) — Five Australian rules footballers have been banned for the remainder of the AFL season by the Sydney Swans for breaching player codes of conduct during a stay at a Melbourne hotel that has led to a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault.

The Swans issued a statement Wednesday saying “Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner will not be considered for selection for the remainder of the 2026 AFL Season,” ruling them out of a regular-season game this weekend and the playoffs series.

The Swans said the club-imposed sanctions were independent of an investigation by Victoria state police. No charges have been laid, and no player has been identified as being involved in an alleged sexual assault.

Police were called to a hotel in East Melbourne early Monday when a woman made a complaint to staff there.

“We respect there is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police and the actions we have taken today are independent of this,” the Swans statement said, adding that the Australian Football League “is supportive of the club’s sanctions.”

Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich told a news conference Wednesday the club sanctions were imposed for a series of postgame code of conduct breaches. Swans players were staying at the hotel after a game on Sunday because a commercial flight wouldn’t have got the squad back to Sydney in time before an airport curfew.

“It was staying out late, it was drinking, it was continuing their night, it was bringing women back to the hotel,” Pavlich said. Such behavior “was a long way short of what we expect of our players.

“We’re holding them to a really high standard. But they were well short of anywhere near that standard.”

He declined to comment on any matters relating to the police investigation.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon earlier released a statement saying the allegations were “deeply concerning.”

“While the matter remains under police investigation, it raises broader issues for our game and our responsibilities as a sport,” Dillon said. “The woman who made the report to police is entitled to privacy and care, and that should be respected.”

The competitive bans followed a club board meeting Tuesday night and interviews with the players involved.

“The Sydney Swans condemn all forms of abuse and disrespectful behavior toward women,” the Swans said in a statement ahead of the board meeting. “Any conduct that causes offense or harm to others is unacceptable and falls well short of our expectations. All women deserve to be respected and feel safe.”

Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham apologized for the actions of the players and said there was deep disappointment within the club.

“To effectively torpedo our season by making a decision such as this tells you how seriously we’ve taken it,” he said.

See AP’s full sports coverage here

Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football club CEO Matthew Pavlich, left, and Chairman Andrew Pridham speak to the media in Sydney, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP Image via AP)