90-Second Read: Cruise ship hit by Hantavirus arrives in Tenerife to evacuate passengers

They were each being screened for Hantavirus, which can cause flu-like symptoms leading to respiratory arrest and death in some cases. The 19 passengers and three crew from the UK were to be flown from Tenerife to Merseyside for hospital quarantine at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral. However, the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was asked at a press conference in Tenerife late on Saturday night whether allowing passengers to travel all over the world and relying on them to self-isolate with no oversight could cause further outbreaks. Spanish citizens were to be the first to disembark, with Spain's health minister, Mónica García, confirming their plane was ready to take off when the passengers arrived. On Monday, a Dutch refuelling plane would pick up any passengers.

They were being asked to isolate for 42 days from their point of potential exposure, which for most of the passengers would be many days ago. The MV Hondius is anchored slightly offshore of the southern commercial port of Grenadilla, and passengers will be brought in groups of five to 10 to the dock by a small boat. Fears of a new pandemic were unfounded, the WHO said, because Hantaviruses did not spread as quickly as Covid-19 and treatment was highly effective if the virus was caught quickly enough. Some crew will stay aboard, going on to pick up supplies at Santa Cruz port in the north of Tenerife and then returning the ship to the Netherlands, where it is from. The polar cruise ship arrived at the Canary Islands.

The ship arrived in the Canary Islands in the early hours of Sunday morning carrying 146 people, after three people died of the virus and eight more became ill. While nobody onboard the vessel has symptoms, passengers and crew have been confined to their cabins in the last few days to help halt the spread of the virus, which is transmitted only through very close contact. The Spanish government and the World Health Organization (WHO) has said they will not come into contact with people in Tenerife. However, a broad incubation period, lasting between a few days and eight weeks, means infected people might have the opportunity to pass on the virus before any symptoms become apparent. Those from elsewhere will take separate flights to their home countries.

For this reason, the WHO is putting together an international co-ordinated response, particularly in tracing those who left the vessel since the onset of the outbreak more than a month ago. Experts in several countries are now trying to solve the mystery of how the virus, which originates from rats and mice, came to be on board the MV Hondius and how it has spread to so many people. Next would be a flight to the Netherlands, which would transport citizens of Germany, Belgium, Greece and some of the crew. Local authorities would not allow the ship to dock amid fears of a wider outbreak overwhelming the healthcare system of the small island nation. Several countries have come together to solve the logistical challenge of tracing people who have been.