Passengers and crew members began disembarking Sunday from a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus outbreak, as authorities launched an internationally coordinated evacuation operation overseen by global health officials.
Government officials said passengers aboard the MV Hondius, none of whom were showing symptoms, were transported from the ship to Tenerife airport aboard military buses before boarding government-chartered flights back to their home countries. Officials stressed that evacuees would remain isolated from the general public throughout the process.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers starting Sunday, as authorities seek to contain any potential spread of the virus.
Flights carrying Spanish and French nationals had already departed by midday Sunday, while additional evacuation flights were being arranged for citizens from Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Türkiye, Ireland and the United States, according to Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia.
Dutch authorities were also expected to evacuate German, Belgian and Greek passengers aboard a Netherlands-bound aircraft. An Australian evacuation plane carrying passengers from Australia, New Zealand and other Asian countries was scheduled to arrive Monday before departing later that day.
The hantavirus outbreak was first identified on May 2 after South African health officials tested a British passenger who was in intensive care. The detection came 21 days after the first passenger death linked to the virus. Two additional former passengers have since died.
Health officials believe the initial infection may have occurred before boarding the cruise ship, potentially during travel in Argentina or Chile, where hantavirus is known to circulate. Authorities said subsequent transmission likely occurred onboard the vessel.
The luxury cruise ship departed Cape Verde for Spain on Wednesday after the WHO and the European Union requested that Spain oversee the evacuation process.
The WHO said Friday that eight former passengers had fallen ill, including the three fatalities — a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of the eight cases have been confirmed as hantavirus infections.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus traveled to Tenerife to oversee the operation and said WHO experts were working closely with Spanish health officials to test passengers.
A Spanish woman suspected of carrying the virus after sharing a flight with one of the deceased passengers later tested negative, officials said.
Meanwhile, the British military parachuted a specialist medical team onto the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to assist a second suspected British case involving a former passenger from the ship.
Four patients remain hospitalized in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while another suspected case in Germany tested negative.
Europe’s public health agency said all passengers aboard the MV Hondius are considered high-risk contacts as a precaution, though it stressed the overall risk to the wider public remains low.
Spanish health authorities also emphasized that the outbreak appears highly unusual, noting that hundreds of cruise ships travel annually from Argentina and Chile to Europe without similar incidents.
Officials added that no rodents — the primary carriers of hantavirus — had been detected aboard the ship.
Thirty crew members are expected to remain onboard as the vessel sails to the Netherlands for disinfection after the evacuation concludes Monday.