90-Second Read: French evacuee from Hantavirus-hit ship tests positive, health minister says

A French national evacuated from a luxury cruise ship linked to a deadly Hantavirus outbreak tested positive for the virus, the French health minister said Monday. Four other French passengers from the… A French national evacuated from a luxury cruise ship linked to a deadly Hantavirus outbreak tested positive for the virus, the French health minister said Monday. Issued on: 11/05/2026, 08:45 Modified: 11/05/2026, 09:23 France on Monday reported its first case of Hantavirus when a French national aboard a virus-linked ship tested positive for the disease, said French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist. Four other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will be re-tested, the minister added. The woman, one of five French passengers flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to.

Health authorities said they have so far identified 22 Hantavirus contact cases in France. The operation to repatriate passengers of the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly Hantavirus outbreak continued into Monday, as US officials on Sunday said an American had tested positive for the virus. Read more Hantavirus outbreak risk to public is 'absolutely low', WHO says The operation evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced on Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands. The four other French passengers from the ship tested negative, but will be re-tested, she added. No vaccines or specific treatments exist for Hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.

But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization recommends a 42-day quarantine and "active follow-up", including daily checks for symptoms such as fever, the UN body's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, said in Geneva. Greece's health ministry said a Greek male evacuee would spend 45 days in mandatory hospital quarantine in Athens, while 14 Spanish citizens will also isolate at a military hospital in Madrid. The only Hantavirus type that is transmissible between humans, the Andes virus, has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern. Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship's nearly 150 passengers and crew, which include 23.

Officials said the group would be taken to a hospital near Liverpool for tests and about 72 hours of quarantine. But a top US health official said the 17 American passengers would not necessarily be quarantined at a specialised centre in the state of Nebraska. The central government has insisted there will be no contact with the population in Tenerife. But Argentine provincial health official Juan Petrina has said there was an "almost zero chance" the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus's weeks-long incubation period, among other factors. Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked, as well as anyone who may have come into contact with them.