Members of the Spanish Civil Guard wait for the arrival of the Cruise MV Hondius at port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 9, 2026. (AFP Photo)
May 09, 2026 06:58 PM GMT+03:00
Spain has authorized the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, where a hantavirus outbreak has killed three people and left six others infected, to dock at Tenerife, mobilizing military units and imposing a strict quarantine cordon around the port as it prepares to evacuate nearly 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries.
The vessel was expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. local time, with Spanish authorities saying all preparations had been completed ahead of the operation.
Senior officials fly to Tenerife to oversee the operation
The scale of Spain’s response was underscored by the presence on the island of Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska, Health Minister Monica Garcia, and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, all of whom traveled to Tenerife to personally coordinate the evacuation.
Ghebreyesus sought to reassure local residents in a statement, saying the pathogen aboard the Hondius was not a new or unknown threat. Marlaska was more direct about the isolation measures in place: passengers and crew, he said, “will only be in contact with the professionals working in the evacuation operation,” adding that there would be “no contact whatsoever with the civilian population.”
A carefully sequenced evacuation to minimize contagion risk
The evacuation plan was designed to prevent any contact between those aboard the vessel and the general public in Tenerife. The ship will anchor at the harbor entrance rather than berthing at the main port, and a one-nautical-mile exclusion zone has been established around it. The surrounding port area will be placed under full quarantine.
Passengers will be transported from the ship to the shore in boats organized by nationality, then transferred by bus to Tenerife airport. Authorities stipulated that no passenger would be allowed to disembark until their connecting flight was ready, with each individual transfer expected to take approximately ten minutes. All personnel involved in the operation will be required to wear FFP2-grade face masks, and passenger luggage will be sealed in bags before transport.
Before disembarkation begins, every passenger and crew member aboard the Hondius will undergo a medical screening on the ship, carried out under the supervision of soldiers from Spain’s Military Emergency Unit, known by its Spanish acronym UCM, which specializes in disaster response and hazardous-material situations.
Spanish nationals first off, EU aircraft on standby for stranded passengers
The 14 Spanish passengers aboard are set to be the first to disembark. They will be transferred directly to the Gomez Ulla military hospital in Madrid and placed in quarantine. All other passengers will be repatriated to their respective countries.
For passengers whose governments do not arrange dedicated repatriation flights, Spain has secured two European Union rescue aircraft to cover those transfers, ensuring no one remains stranded aboard the ship longer than necessary.
Hantavirus, a rodent-borne pathogen known to cause severe respiratory and hemorrhagic illness in humans, does not spread from person to person under normal circumstances, a feature that distinguishes it from respiratory viruses and informs the design of the evacuation protocol. The current outbreak aboard the Hondius has so far claimed three lives, with six confirmed cases among the vessel’s 147 passengers and crew.
May 09, 2026 06:58 PM GMT+03:00