Spain, France, Germany, the UK, the US and the Netherlands have sent planes to evacuate passengers from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, which is anchored off Tenerife. Follow DW.
Individuals from 19 countries left the Canary island on eight special aircraft, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia told journalists in Tenerife on Sunday.
According to Garcia, 34 people, most of them crew members, will remain on board and head to the Netherlands aboard the Hondius, which sails under a Dutch flag, on Monday.
The ship is to travel to the port of Rotterdam, where it will undergo disinfection. The body of a German passenger, who died on the ship, will be removed upon arrival there.
Here's an overview of what we know about some of the evacuations flights: France: French passengers have landed in Paris, where they were met by emergency vehicles. One of the French passengers developed symptoms during the evacuation flight. All are to be put into strict isolation.
United Kingdom: Authorities have said passengers will be hospitalized for 72 hours of quarantine, followed by six weeks of self-isolation.
Netherlands: 26 people were evacuated to the Dutch city of Eindhoven. These included eight Dutch citizens, as well as people from India, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Ukraine, Guatemala, the Philippines and Montenegro, according to the Dutch Foreign Ministry. The Dutch citizens were being taken home by medical transport and will self-quarantine for six weeks. Local health services were arranging quarantine locations for others.
Norway: Norway sent an ambulance plane to the island with personnel trained to transport patients with high-risk infections, its Directorate for Civil Protection told public broadcaster NRK.
United States: Americans will first be flown to the University of Nebraska, which has a quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, told US broadcaster CNN.
Australia: Australia is sending a plane to evacuate its citizens and others from nearby countries, such as New Zealand. This is expected to arrive in Tenerife on Monday.
How the MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak is tracked worldwide To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video https://p.dw.com/p/5DYcV Skip next section WATCH: Spain flies passengers home from hantavirus-hit ship 05/10/2026 May 10, 2026 WATCH: Spain flies passengers home from hantavirus-hit ship Karl Sexton Editor Nearly four weeks after a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a luxury cruise ship, an international evacuation operation is under way. Authorities from 23 countries are coordinating the evacuation as health agencies enforce strict precautions.
Spain flies passengers home from hantavirus-hit ship To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video https://p.dw.com/p/5DYcT Skip next section Netherlands plane returns with 26 on board, including 4 German passengers 05/10/2026 May 10, 2026 Netherlands plane returns with 26 on board, including 4 German passengers A transport plane from Tenerife to Eindhoven military airport landed late on Sunday.
It was carrying 26 passengers or crew from the MV Hondius, including eight Dutch nationals and four Germans.
Specialists, including from the Red Cross, were awaiting the plane's arrvial. The four Germans were set to be transported to Frankfurt.
"Relieved that they are safely on their way after a period of uncertainty and that the other passengers are travelling home via other routes," Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen had said soon after the plane took off, thanking Spain and other partners for their cooperation.
According to authorities in the Netherlands all the passengers will be quarantined for around six weeks.
Netherlands residents would be transported home for isolation while citizens of other countries without alternative options would be taken to a "quarantine location," the Foreign Ministry said.
Hantavirus can have a rather long incubation period, extending to or even beyond six weeks in exceptional cases, though typically symptoms will present faster than that.
Spanish civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told local radio that citizens of Belgium, Greece, Guatemala and Argentina were on board, as well as the four Germans.
It said health officials had arranged for specialists to meet them upon their arrival in the Netherlands at the military airport in Eindhoven, and then transport them to Frankfurt as a first step.
All four are thought to be asymptomatic. But should any of them display symptoms in transport, they would be taken to the Düsseldorf University Hospital, where one 65-year-old woman is already on the infectious diseases ward.
She had close contact with one of the patients on board who died, and was flown off the cruise ship before it reached Tenerife.
"One of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane," Lecornu wrote online. "Also, these five passengers have been immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice." Lecornu said they were receiving medical attention and would have tests and a medical check-up.
Lecornu said that later on Sunday evening he would implement a temporary decree authorizing isolation measures for contact cases to protect the wider public, saying the Health Ministry would comment further later.
"I would like to express my gratitude for the hospitality that characterizes the people of the Canary Islands, and for taking in the cruise ship Hondius with the hantavirus patients,” Leo said after his midday prayer on Sunday.
Initially, regional officials in the Canary Islands refused to let the ship enter its ports, citing public safety. These objections have been overruled by the central government in Madrid.
The pope is due to visit Tenerife in just over a month and attend an event in the Santa Cruz port.
This is the first out of several evacuation flights expected today and tomorrow.
At the Dutch airport, four Germans will reportedly be met by German firefighters who will then transport them to Frankfurt, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast.
Citing unnamed sources, Germany's DPA news agency said that any patient starting to show symptoms of a hantavirus infection will be taken to a clinic in the western German city of Dusseldorf.
The clinic is already treating a 65-year-old woman who had been a passenger on the Hondius and in contact with the German woman who passed away during the journey.
They are set to board military buses that will take them to the airport, where they will fly on a military plane to Madrid. Once there, they will be placed in quarantine.
"The entire operation is proceeding normally," Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said.
Dutch nationals are expected to be the next to leave the vessel.
A medical team has now boarded the MV Hondius and is conducting an epidemiological investigation, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.
Oxygen and other medical equipment were also dropped from the RAF cargo plane. The UK military described the drop as a "daring parachute operation to deliver critical medical support." The remote volcanic island, home of the Hondius passenger, is located in the South Atlantic and has no airstrip, making it accessible only by boat.
Spanish nationals will be the first to disembark.
Authorities previously said none of the nearly 150 passengers and crew aboard the ship currently showed symptoms of a Hantavirus infection. However, the incubation period for the virus can last for up to eight weeks.
The first victim, a Dutch man, was taken off the ship at the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena. His wife later died in a South African hospital after disembarking.
Germany's official public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, recommends six weeks of isolation for suspected contact persons who are not showing symptoms of hantavirus infection. The quarantine can also be conducted at home.
05/10/2026 May 10, 2026 What happens next?
A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak has arrived at the Spanish island of Tenerife.
Spanish authorities say medical teams will first screen everyone on board for acute symptoms.
If none are found, passengers will disembark in groups of five, wearing FFP2 masks and carrying only light hand luggage.
They will be taken by bus to the airport and flown home on special charter flights arranged by their countries.
The World Health Organization says returns are planned for Sunday and Monday, with passengers expected to enter quarantine after arrival.
