Premier Roger Cook has moved to reassure West Australians the risk of hantavirus spreading in the community is “non-existent” as exposed passengers prepare to quarantine in Bullsbrook.

“This is not the same sort of virus as coronavirus. COVID was a highly-infectious disease. This disease is not easily transmitted, and so from that perspective, we don’t think there’s any risks to the WA public,” Mr Cook said on Tuesday.

“The advice we’ve received is that the risk is next to zero in relation to anyone in the area or everyone in Western Australia.”

Australian and New Zealand passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship remained in quarantine in the Netherlands on Tuesday after arriving via plane from the Canary Islands earlier in the day.

A group of six will head to WA in the next few days.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the cohort would spend at least three weeks inside a quarantine facility in Bullsbrook, north of Perth, so they can be monitored for any symptoms of the deadly virus — which can take weeks to manifest.

The group includes three people from NSW and two Queenslanders — of which four are Australian citizens and one permanent resident — as well as one New Zealander.

A team from Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre was due in Perth on Tuesday afternoon to lead the quarantine repatriation effort.

Led by acting director disaster, preparedness and response Kathleen McDermott, the NCCTRC team is expected to spend at least two weeks in the WA-capital overseeing the operation.

Details around whether secondary contacts — such as flight, transport or medical staff — will need to quarantine remain a grey area.

Health Minister Meredith Hammat on Tuesday said such protocols were being managed by the federal government, which was still trying to secure a plane on Tuesday.

“That’s part of the planning that the Commonwealth’s doing in terms of engaging the staff. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is a critical part of it to make sure that they’re protected.

Ms Hammat stressed it was unlikely passengers would get sick, but tertiary care in Perth hospitals would be offered if they did.

“It’s very unlikely, from the information we’ve had, that people will fall critically ill, that WA Health will work with our health service providers and the Commonwealth to make sure that we give them the care that they need.”

Opposition leader Basil Zempilas said the government needed to say where exactly passengers would go if they needed treatment — and what it would mean for hospitals and health staff should they come into contact with infected patients.

“Where will they go? What precautions will be in place at the medical facility that they are taken to? I think all legitimate questions for West Australians and all legitimate questions for West Australian health workers,” Mr Zempilas said.

Australia’s ambassador to the Netherlands Dr Greg French met the Australians and New Zealander as they arrived at Eindhoven Air Base the about 6.30am on Tuesday (WST).

He spoke with them briefly at a distance due to health protocols.

The group is undergoing initial quarantine in the Netherlands but are only allowed to stay for 48 hours before heading to Perth.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is handling the repatriation flights, which will include medical personnel.

“This is a difficult arrangement to make,” Mr Butler said. “You’ve got to have crew that are willing to isolate at the end of the flight, you’ve got to have a flight that has some refuelling arrangements put in place between the Netherlands and Australia.”

Mr Butler said the group travelling to Perth were currently not displaying symptoms but would be regularly tested.

The group will quarantine for at least three weeks after landing at RAAF Base Pearce and being bused to the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience, 7km away.

The $400 million facility was built in 2022 as the COVID pandemic subsided and has only been used once before, as an emergency shelter during a bushfire in December 2023.

Mr Cook insisted the governments had ticked every box to ensure community safety.

“This is an important opportunity for the Commonwealth to be really making sure that they prioritise the safety of the community and the safety of the individuals,” Mr Cook said.

“The hantavirus is not highly contagious, but it is important that we take a precautionary approach and ensure that we guarantee the safety of the individuals involved and the community at large.”

Plans would be determined by the federal government if the situation worsened, he said.

“We’ll work with the Commonwealth to make sure that they have all the medical supports that they need in the event that these people become unwell,” Mr Cook said.

Mr Butler said while three people had died and eight infected from the virus-stricken vessel — human to human transmission of the virus was “very difficult”.

The incubation period is anywhere between one and eight weeks and symptoms can appear between two and four weeks — but as early as one week and as late as eight.

Symptoms usually start abruptly and include high fever, fatigue, muscle aches and sometimes diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Tests taken in WA will be flown to Melbourne’s Doherty Institute, which is the only facility able to undertake the PCR or serology testing for hantavirus.

The World Health Organisation recommends home or facility quarantine for high-risk contacts for 42 days following the last exposure to hantavirus.

Mr Butler stressed the quarantine requirements were strict compared to those imposed by the other nations repatriating passengers.

“This is probably the strongest quarantine response of any country that is taking passengers back from this cruise ship,” he said.

“Over the next 24 to 48 hours, we expect them to start their flight back to Australia.”

Mr Butler confirmed the disease had officially been listed under Australia’s Biosecurity Act as a “listed human disease” which allows for formal biosecurity orders to be imposed on passengers.

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses usually spread by rodent droppings and is transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.

The Aussie travellers were among 147 people on board the MV Hondius, which detected a rare case of the Andes strain in Johannesburg on May 2 when a British man fell ill.

It came after a 70-year-old Dutch man fell ill on April 6, just five days after the ship departed from Argentina, and died on board.

Multiple international passengers have shown symptoms since entering quarantine, including a passenger from Spain quarantining in Madrid and two US citizens who travelled home in “biocontainment units”.

A French woman isolating in Paris is also deteriorating after testing positive and 22 people have been contact-traced to her.

A further two infected passengers, from Britain, are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

About half of the cruise’s 38 Filipino crew are in quarantine in the Netherlands while the others remain onboard, among 27 people still on board comprised of 25 crew and two medical staff.

Of those, 17 are from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands (including the two medical staff), four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland.

The ship sailed from Tenerife after the last passengers disembarked and is heading to Netherlands.