Australian passengers quarantining in the Netherlands following a deadly virus outbreak on a cruise ship are finally coming home after days of uncertainty.

The outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius, a luxury cruise ship, has left three people dead and a fourth person fighting for life. At least 11 passengers have been infected.

Five Australians and one Kiwi — three people from NSW, two from Queensland and the New Zealander — were due to be medically evacuated from the Canary Islands, south of Spain, at 5pm local time (1am Tuesday AEST).

But the group was taken to the Netherlands until an Australian charter flight could collect them to come back to Western Australia’s RAAF Base Pearce before quarantining in the Bullsbrook facility for at least three weeks.

On Wednesday, the federal government finally secured a plane to bring them back and is working to finalise necessary clearances and approvals for the fasted journey back to Australia.

Meanwhile in another setback, it has been revealed that 12 Dutch hospital staff have now been forced into isolation for six weeks after mishandling blood samples from an infected passenger.

Authorities also fear the virus, believed to be an Andes strain, is more contagious than previously thought as more passengers fall ill.

It has been assumed that the virus is contagious only if someone is in close contact with someone who’s having symptoms. Some experts now suggest it’s possible it may be more contagious than thought.

“What we’re hearing now, including from the doctors who were on the ship, is that at least a few people contracted it without that long, prolonged exposure that we’ve always assumed,” Dr Ashish Jha, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, told NBC on Monday.