Dozens Evacuated From MV Hondius Begin Flying Home From Tenerife, Spain’s Canary Islands

Dozens of passengers from the MV Hondius, a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak, began flying home from Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands under strict safety measures after the vessel docked in Tenerife.

“Passengers from the cruise ship infected with hantavirus have been flown home on board military and government aircraft after the vessel arrived in Tenerife in the Canary Islands”

Al Jazeera

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said at a news conference at the port on Sunday that the operation went "according to plan" as a total of 94 people of 19 nationalities disembarked.

Al Jazeera

CNN reported that 18 people bound for the US were among those who disembarked, and that Spanish health authorities said passengers were screened on the ship Sunday morning and were all asymptomatic at the time.

NBC News said the 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius were expected to be flown to the U.S. and monitored at the National Quarantine Unit on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, with an 18th evacuee described as a British national who lives in the U.S.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Sunday that one of the five French nationals repatriated from Tenerife showed symptoms of hantavirus while on board the flight returning them to France.

CNN quoted Lecornu saying, "As a result, these five passengers were immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice," and said they were receiving medical care and would undergo testing and a full health assessment.

Associated Press

BBC reported that five French nationals who had been aboard the Hondius would be placed in "strict isolation until further notice" after one developed symptoms on the plane home.

Al Jazeera said the five returning passengers were placed in strict isolation with 72 hours of hospitalisation to be followed by 45 days of home quarantine, while also describing that evacuated US citizens would be quarantined at a medical centre in Nebraska.

Health officials and WHO leaders repeatedly emphasized that the risk to the public was low as the evacuation continued, with NBC News quoting WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying, "The risk to the public is low," after the first plane departed.

NBC News also quoted Tedros adding, "So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic," while describing that the WHO was recommending a long quarantine period for passengers returning home.

BBC said the WHO had recommended a 42-day quarantine period for the cruise passengers from their last exposure, and it described that passengers from the UK would be taken to an isolation facility for 72 hours before assessing whether they could isolate at home.

Al Jazeera said the WHO estimated there are 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus infections annually, and it reported that the WHO and the European Union asked Spain to manage the evacuation after the ship headed to Tenerife from Cape Verde.