90-Second Read: Passengers begin disembarking from Hantavirus-hit ship in Spain's Canary Islands

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… Passengers began disembarking on Sunday from a cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak which was anchored near Tenerife. 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 have died but health officials stress that the risk to global public health is low. No vaccines or specific treatments exist for Hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.

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. The disembarkation of the passengers and the Spanish crew member has started," the health ministry confirmed on Telegram. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.

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 WHO said Friday it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. Spanish authorities have insisted there will be no contact with the local population in Tenerife. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is accompanying Spanish officials to oversee the delicate operation. 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.