90-Second Read: Passengers begin disembarking from cruise ship hit by Hantavirus

Passengers began disembarking on Sunday from a cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak which was anchored near Tenerife. Three passengers from the MV Hondius have died but health officials stress that the risk to global public health is low. Occupants of a cruise ship struck by a deadly Hantavirus outbreak that has sparked international alarm began leaving the vessel in Spain 's Canary Islands on Sunday for their repatriation. Three passengers from the MV Hondius, a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman, have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

The final flight to evacuate most of the ship's nearly 150 passengers and crew will leave for Australia on Monday, before the ship continues to the Netherlands, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said. Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel onto smaller boats to reach the port of Granadilla on Tenerife, AFP journalists saw. Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them. Issued on: 10/05/2026, 07:35 Modified: 10/05/2026, 11:55 One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.

But health officials have stressed that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to a repeat of the Covid-19 pandemic. But all passengers are asymptomatic and underwent a final medical assessment before their disembarkation, Garcia told reporters on Tenerife shortly before the operation began. The only Hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person, the Andes virus, has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern. It left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.

The 14 Spaniards on board would leave first, followed by a Dutch flight that would also take citizens from Germany, Belgium, Greece and part of the crew, Garcia said. The WHO said Friday it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is accompanying Spanish officials to oversee the delicate operation.