90-Second Read: Spain reports new Hantavirus case in passenger evacuated from cruise ship

The infected man is one of more than 120 passengers and crew members evacuated from MV Hondius, the ministry says. After evacuating its 87 passengers and 35 crew members, the cruise is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it is expected to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Health authorities say this is the first Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship.

A military hospital in Madrid is quarantining 14 Spaniards who were removed from the ship on Sunday, with all but one testing negative for the Hantavirus. The patient who provisionally tested positive for Hantavirus yesterday has been confirmed as positive. In a Paris hospital, a French woman evacuated from the ship remained in intensive care in a stable condition.

The French government was holding two Hantavirus-related emergency meetings on Tuesday, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said. The WHO has advised returning passengers to stay in quarantine, either in their homes or in hospitals, for 42 days, saying countries may handle the monitoring of their nationals returning from the ship without symptoms in different ways. At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak.