Spanish authorities began evacuating passengers from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius on Sunday after a hantavirus outbreak linked to three deaths during a transatlantic voyage from Argentina.
The ship arrived off the coast of Tenerife early Sunday and remained offshore near the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona while health officials prepared a controlled evacuation operation.
Passengers were transferred from the vessel in small groups and taken directly to evacuation flights under isolation procedures designed to prevent contact with the public.
Officials said the final evacuation flight would depart on Monday afternoon.
Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said passengers would return home in groups organised by nationality after health checks carried out on board.
The first passengers to leave the vessel were Spanish nationals. Dutch passengers were scheduled to depart next along with travellers from Germany, Belgium and Greece. Other flights were arranged for passengers from Turkey, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The final flight, expected to leave Tenerife on Monday, will carry passengers from Australia, New Zealand and several Asian countries.
Authorities said no passengers currently on board showed symptoms of infection.
The ship, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, carries around 140 people. Some crew members are expected to remain on board after the evacuation as the vessel continues toward Rotterdam.
The outbreak triggered an international response after several passengers developed symptoms linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare form of the virus that spreads between humans through prolonged close contact.
The World Health Organization confirmed six hantavirus cases from eight suspected infections on Friday. Three passengers died during the voyage.
The dead include a Dutch couple and a German passenger.
WHO officials stressed that the risk of wider spread remains low.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who arrived in Tenerife on Saturday, sought to calm fears among residents.
“I need you to hear me clearly. This is not another Covid,” Tedros said in a public message to people on the island.
Regional authorities in the Canary Islands refused permission for the ship to dock directly at the port. The vessel instead remained about one nautical mile offshore while police and health officials sealed off parts of the harbour area.
Passengers were brought ashore by smaller boats before boarding buses to isolated airport facilities. Spanish authorities said the operation aimed to ensure there would be no interaction between passengers and local residents.
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on 1 April for a voyage across the Atlantic toward Cape Verde.
The outbreak began during the voyage after a Dutch passenger died on board on 11 April. His wife later died in South Africa after leaving the ship at Saint Helena.
A Swiss passenger who disembarked there tested positive, while a British passenger remains in intensive care in South Africa.
A German passenger died aboard the vessel on 2 May.
Health officials are still investigating how the virus first reached the ship.
According to local researchers cited by the Associated Press, the first infected Dutch passenger may have contracted the virus during a birdwatching excursion near Ushuaia in Argentina.
Authorities in the region are now examining local rodent populations for traces of hantavirus.
Hantavirus infections are reported regularly in parts of Argentina, though human-to-human transmission remains rare.
Several countries have launched contact tracing operations linked to passengers who left the vessel earlier in the voyage.
Finnish health authorities said two Finnish passengers exposed during the same flight had returned to Finland without symptoms and had not been tested.
HT