Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship have disembarked in Tenerife, as the army launched a special aid mission to help an infected Briton in Tristan da Cunha.
Despite protests, the MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning, with British passengers set to be repatriated to isolate at the hospital used as the UK’s initial Covid quarantine site, as the UKHSA said the risk to the public ‘remains very low’.
UKHSA said passengers will be flown to the UK on a chartered flight and transferred to an isolation facility at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside.
Meanwhile, a specialist team from the British Army have been parachuted on to the British overseas territory Tristan da Cunha with medical personnel, aid and equipment to treat the Briton suspected to have hantavirus who disembarked there.
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed on Friday that a British national disembarked from the cruise ship MV Hondius on to the island, where they live, with a suspected case of hantavirus.
Six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted, while oxygen supplies and medical aid was dropped on to the remote island, which is normally only accessible by boat.
The RAF A400M transport aircraft flew from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island, supported by an RAF Voyager, before heading to Tristan da Cunha.
The Ministry of Defence said it was the first time medical personnel had been parachuted in to provide humanitarian support.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the safety of ‘all members of the British family’ is the top priority.
She said: ‘We will continue to work closely with international authorities and the Tristan da Cunha administration, keeping those affected informed and ensuring the right support is in place in the UK and across the Overseas Territories.’
A specialist team from the British Army have been parachuted on to the British overseas territory Tristan da Cunha with medical personnel, aid and equipment to treat the Briton suspected to have hantavirus who disembarked there
Passengers disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on May 10
A person wearing a mask holds a mobile phone aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla de Abona after being affected by a hantavirus outbreak, in Tenerife, Spain, on Sunday
Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain on Sunday, May 10
Officials from the UKHSA and Foreign Office were due to greet the MV Hondius when it docked in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, with Britons on board tested for hantavirus before they disembark.
If people test negative and are not displaying symptoms, they will be taken straight to a chartered repatriation flight staffed by medical professionals and containing personal protective equipment such as face masks.
After returning to the UK, the passengers will be housed in an accommodation block on the Arrowe Park site away from the hospital’s public areas to receive clinical assessments and testing as a precautionary measure.
The hospital was used to house British citizens returning from Wuhan, China, in January 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic.
The World Health Organisation said on Saturday there were no symptomatic passengers on board the ship.
The UN health agency said there had been six confirmed hantavirus cases linked to MV Hondius and four patients were currently in hospital.
It added that a total of eight cases, including three deaths, had been reported – with one previous suspected case being reclassified after testing negative for hantavirus.
The two confirmed British cases are in hospital in South Africa and the Netherlands, while the third British national in Tristan da Cunha was being supported by health services on the remote South Atlantic island.
Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at UKHSA, said: ‘We continue to work at pace with our international partners to ensure the safe repatriation of British nationals from the MV Hondius.
‘The safety and wellbeing of those on board remains our number one priority. Established infection control measures will be in place at every step of the journey, and passengers will receive full support throughout, including during their period of isolation.’
Janelle Holmes, the chief executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said in a letter to staff: ‘We have been asked by NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to house the guests, recognising how quickly and positively we responded to and supported the repatriation of British nationals from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘We will be welcoming the guests on Sunday May 10, 2026 and they will all be screened for symptoms before they arrive on site; nobody showing any symptoms will be transferred here.
‘If anyone becomes unwell after arrival, they will be transferred quickly to another facility.’
Emergency services in the north west of England said they expected the passengers to be kept in a ‘managed setting’ for up to 72 hours.
Public health specialists will then assess whether they can isolate at home or at another suitable location based on their living arrangements.
Britons returning to the UK will stay in self-isolation for 45 days and will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes.
‘We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,’ WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove said Saturday.
But the risk to the general public and the people of the Canaries remained low, she added.
The cruise ship MV Hondius arrives at the port of Granadilla de Abona after being affected by a hantavirus outbreak, in Tenerife, Spain, May 10
Passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, record using their mobile phones aboard a bus at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife
Six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted, while oxygen supplies and medical aid was dropped on to the remote island, which is normally only accessible by boat
Medical personnel in the port of Granadilla as the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife
Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at UKHSA, said: ‘We continue to work at pace with our international partners to ensure the safe repatriation of British nationals from the MV Hondius.
‘The safety and wellbeing of those on board remains our number one priority. Established infection control measures will be in place at every step of the journey, and passengers will receive full support throughout, including during their period of isolation.’
A joint statement from NHS England North West, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, Merseyside Police, North West Ambulance Service and Wirral Council said: ‘Organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside are working closely with colleagues from the UK Health Security Agency and other government bodies to support the repatriation of passengers from MV Hondius.
‘In line with advice from the UK Health Security Agency, on arrival, they will be taken to a managed setting for clinical assessment and testing. We expect this initial stay to be up to 72 hours.
‘Following this, public health specialists will assess whether they can isolate at home or at another suitable location, based on their living arrangements.
‘The risk to the general population remains very low.’
WHO has sought to reassure ‘worried’ Tenerife residents that they will not encounter passengers of the hantavirus-hit cruise ship set to dock on their island.
In a letter addressed to the people of Tenerife, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he knew residents were ‘worried’.
He said the virus was ‘serious’ but the outbreak was ‘not another Covid’ and the ‘current public health risk from hantavirus remains low’.
He added: ‘Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.’
The outbreak has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina that two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who arrived in Spain on Saturday and is expected to oversee the ship evacuation, gave the same assurance and thanked the people of Tenerife for their solidarity.
‘I need you to hear me clearly,’ Tedros wrote in an open letter to the people of Tenerife on Saturday: ‘This is not another Covid.’
After arriving in Tenerife, he said he was confident the operation would be a success. ‘Spain is ready and prepared,’ he told reporters.
At the port of Granadilla de Abona early Sunday morning, white tents had been sent up along the quay and the police had secured part of the port.
Despite the situation, daily life appeared largely normal, with some people swimming and others shopping at the market or sitting at cafe terraces.
‘There are worries there could be a danger, but honestly I don’t see people being very concerned,’ said David Parada, a lottery vendor.
Regional authorities have refused to allow the vessel to dock. Instead, it will remain offshore while passengers are screened and evacuated between Sunday and Monday – the only window health officials say the weather will allow.
Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said earlier that ‘all guests and a limited number of crew members’ were expected to begin to leave the ship from around 7am.
‘Once disembarked, they will be transferred immediately to their allocated aircraft,’ the Dutch firm said.
The MV Hondius is sailing from Cape Verde, where three infected people had already been evacuated earlier in the week.
In Madrid, Spain’s health and interior ministers insisted there would be ‘no contact’ with the local population, and that passengers would leave ‘by nationality groups’.
‘All areas (the passengers) pass through will be sealed off,’ the interior minister said, adding a maritime exclusion zone would be in force around the vessel.
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.
Provincial health official Juan Petrina said there was an ‘almost zero chance’ the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors.
Members of the media work at the port of Granadilla de Abona following the arrival of the cruise ship MV Hondius
Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them.
A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said Friday.
The passenger – the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak – had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.
She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish authorities said a woman on that flight was being tested for hantavirus, having developed symptoms at home in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital, said health secretary Javier Padilla.
Two Singapore residents who had been on the ship tested negative for the disease but would remain in quarantine, the city state’s authorities said Friday.
British health authorities also said Friday there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world’s most isolated settlements with around 220 people.
