90-Second Read: UK passengers on Hantavirus-hit cruise to be flown to Merseyside for quarantine

The 19 British passengers and three crew will be transferred to Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, which hosted British people returning from China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. All 146 passengers of the MV Hondius, where an outbreak has killed three people and caused an international health scare, will be screened for the infection in Tenerife on Sunday morning before being transferred to their home countries. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. The polar cruise ship is heading to the Canary Islands after spending days stranded off the coast of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde.

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, successfully lobbied the Spanish government on Thursday to stop the vessel docking in Tenerife, instead agreeing it could be anchored offshore to allow for the transfer of passengers and crew. The vessel will anchor off the coast near the southern commercial port of Granadilla where passengers will be screened for the virus. They are being asked to isolate for 42 days from their point of potential exposure, which for most of the passengers will be many days ago.

However, this would only happen when planes were on the asphalt ready to receive them. But winds are expected to pick up off the coast of the island after Monday, meaning any personnel from countries where flights were not arranged may be stuck on board. The ship is on track to arrive in Tenerife sooner than originally expected, in the early hours of Sunday morning.