{"id":10043,"date":"2026-05-09T13:35:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/10043\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T13:35:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:35:03","slug":"european-states-to-send-planes-to-evacuate-citizens-from-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/10043\/","title":{"rendered":"European states to send planes to evacuate citizens from hantavirus-hit cruise ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

MV Hondius to anchor near Tenerife 0300-0500 GMT on SundayPassengers will depart in groups of \u200bnationalitiesCruise ship will continue to Netherlands for disinfectionWHO Director-General travelling to Tenerife on Saturday<\/p>\n

MADRID, May 9 (Reuters) – Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands will send planes to evacuate their citizens aboard the Tenerife-bound cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s interior minister said in Madrid on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The European Union is sending \u200btwo further planes for remaining European citizens, Fernando Grande-Marlaska added. The U.S. and UK have \u200bconfirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were \u2060unable to send air transport, he said.<\/p>\n

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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will meet Spain’s \u200bPrime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid on Saturday afternoon and then travel to Tenerife in the Canary \u200bIslands, alongside Spain’s interior and health ministers to coordinate the arrival of the ship. It is expected to anchor near the island between 0300 GMT and 0500 GMT.<\/p>\n

Local authorities have warned the evacuation must take place between Sunday \u200bmidday and Monday afternoon before conditions at sea are expected to take a turn for the worse \u200buntil the end of May due to stormy weather.<\/p>\n

The luxury cruise ship MV Hondius left for Spain on Wednesday \u200cfrom \u2060the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union asked the country<\/a> to manage the evacuation of passengers onboard after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization said on Friday that eight people had fallen ill, including three who died – a Dutch couple and a German national.<\/p>\n

Six of these \u200bpeople are confirmed<\/a> to have \u200bcontracted the virus, with \u2060another two suspected cases, the WHO has said.<\/p>\n

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but can in rare cases be transmitted person-to-person.<\/p>\n

All passengers as well as \u200b17 crew members will be evacuated but 30 crew will stay on \u200bboard and travel \u2060on to the Netherlands, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said. Luggage and the body of a deceased passenger on the ship will remain on board and the ship will be fully disinfected on arrival, she \u2060added.<\/p>\n

Spanish citizens \u200bwill disembark first, with the order of evacuation of the \u200bremaining groups of citizens to be determined by health authorities. Citizens will not be able to disembark until their evacuation plane \u200bis ready to depart, Grande-Marlaska said.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Corina Pons, Editing by Aislinn Laing, Alexandra Hudson<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MV Hondius to anchor near Tenerife 0300-0500 GMT on SundayPassengers will depart in groups of \u200bnationalitiesCruise ship will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8315,8314,8324,8337,8294,8319,8338,8318,8335,8352,8354,8363,8351,8339,8368,8360,8350,8342,8366,8355,8340,8346,8361,8369,8359,8373,8371,8330,8372,8331,8345,8362,8347,8356,8348,8343,8370,8341,8349,8367,8365,8357,8344,8358,8364,8353,8295,8296,1143,8325,8297,8321,17,8316,8320,8312,8298,8299,8300,8336,8301,8302,8303,8327,8333,8334,8322,6,8304,8326,8305,8374,8332,8306,8293,8317,8328,8307,8329,2905,8308,8309,8310,540,8323,8313,8311],"class_list":{"0":"post-10043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-netherlands","8":"tag-afr","9":"tag-amers","10":"tag-ar","11":"tag-be","12":"tag-blr","13":"tag-blux","14":"tag-ceeu","15":"tag-cv","16":"tag-de","17":"tag-destabn","18":"tag-destafa","19":"tag-destafn","20":"tag-destc","21":"tag-destcsa","22":"tag-destd","23":"tag-destdnp","24":"tag-deste","25":"tag-destg","26":"tag-destgns","27":"tag-destgro","28":"tag-destlby","29":"tag-destm","30":"tag-destmtl","31":"tag-destnat","32":"tag-desto","33":"tag-destocatpm","34":"tag-destoil","35":"tag-destouktpm","36":"tag-destoustpm","37":"tag-destouswdm","38":"tag-destpcm","39":"tag-destpen","40":"tag-destpge","41":"tag-destpsc","42":"tag-destptd","43":"tag-destrast","44":"tag-destrbn","45":"tag-destreulb","46":"tag-destrnp","47":"tag-destrws","48":"tag-destrwsa","49":"tag-destsf","50":"tag-destsof","51":"tag-destu","52":"tag-destucdptest","53":"tag-destuki","54":"tag-dip","55":"tag-dli","56":"tag-emea","57":"tag-emrg","58":"tag-epmics","59":"tag-es","60":"tag-eu","61":"tag-europ","62":"tag-ezc","63":"tag-gb","64":"tag-gen","65":"tag-hea","66":"tag-humdis","67":"tag-ie","68":"tag-inds","69":"tag-infdis","70":"tag-intag","71":"tag-latam","72":"tag-mtpix","73":"tag-mtvid","74":"tag-namer","75":"tag-netherlands","76":"tag-news1","77":"tag-nl","78":"tag-oms","79":"tag-packageus-top-news","80":"tag-packageworld-news","81":"tag-pol","82":"tag-rhpigovernment-health-policy","83":"tag-safr","84":"tag-samer","85":"tag-soci","86":"tag-topicpharma-healthcare-policy-regulation","87":"tag-tour","88":"tag-tpt","89":"tag-tran","90":"tag-un1","91":"tag-us","92":"tag-wafr","93":"tag-weu","94":"tag-za"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}