More than 90 evacuated from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

By Saturday evening, more than 90 passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius had been evacuated, according to Spain's Minister of Health Monica Garcia. Garcia said the final two flights were scheduled to return passengers home from the Canary Islands by the end of Sunday.

According to Garcia, the last two flights include one Australian aircraft carrying six people and one Dutch aircraft with 18 on board, including nationals from countries that did not arrange evacuation flights of their own.

Fourteen Spanish nationals were the first to be flown from Tenerife to Madrid and will face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital in the capital. They were followed by French and British nationals, who were taken to Paris and Manchester, respectively, the BBC reported on Sunday.

According to plans released by Spain's health authorities, the MV Hondius will sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands for deep disinfection after all passengers and non-essential crew members have been evacuated. The entire evacuation process is being supervised by officials from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Maria Van Kerkhove, the acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management of the WHO, described the complex operation as a coordinated international effort led by Spain with support from the Netherlands. She also said on May 9 that the WHO recommends either home or facility-based quarantine and monitoring for 42 days for everyone who left the ship, which suggests active follow-up including daily checks for fever or other symptoms.

On May 3, the WHO confirmed a hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius. As of May 8, a total of eight cases associated with the virus, including three deaths, had been reported. 

Hantavirus is a rare disease usually linked to exposure to infected rodents and can cause severe respiratory illness. The Andes strain linked to the outbreak is the only known hantavirus strain with documented human-to-human transmission, according to the WHO. The UN health agency has stressed that the risk of transmission to the public remains low.

(Cover photo: The evacuated passengers from the MV Hondius depart for Tenerife Airport escorted by a member of Spain's External Health Service in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, May 10, 2026. /VCG)