90-Second Read: French national shows symptoms on return from Hantavirus-hit ship

A passenger of a cruise ship that was struck by an outbreak of Hantavirus has shown symptoms of the disease while being repatriated to France, the country's prime minister has said. Sébastien Lecornu said the French national developed symptoms while on a chartered flight from Tenerife to Paris, and so all five evacuated from the MV Hondius had been "immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice". One of the Americans began showing mild symptoms of Hantavirus and another tested mildly positive for the Andes strain of the virus after being evacuated from the cruise ship, the US Department of Health and Human Services said. None of the Britons have reported symptoms but they are being monitored, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

A flight departed on Sunday for the US carrying 18 people, all of the American passengers from the cruise and one British national who resides in the US. Six passengers are returning to Australia and another 18 will be flown to the Netherlands. Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain, which the WHO believes was contracted by some of the ship's passengers while in South America, is possible. Three passengers have died after travelling on the ship, two of whom were confirmed to have had the virus.

The French citizens are among more than 90 tourists to be ferried home from the Dutch vessel on Sunday, which anchored off the Canary Islands before dawn. After the French flight touched down at Le Bourget Airport, officials wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) could be seen meeting them on the tarmac. Ambulances then took them to the Bichat hospital in the French capital. Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and shortness of breath.

Fourteen Spanish nationals flown from Tenerife to Madrid now face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital in the Spanish capital. British nationals arriving back in the UK will be taken to an isolation facility where they will be kept for up to 72 hours. This began the carefully choreographed process of removing those aboard and repatriating them devised by the Spanish government and the World Health Organization (WHO).