Spain Hantavirus: First "Hondius" passengers flown out - including Germans
The evacuation of the people on board the cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak has started on Tenerife under the strictest safety precautions and without any problems. The first passengers and crew members were brought ashore in small groups in boats just a few hours after the "Hondius" entered the port of Granadilla in the south of the vacation island, then taken to nearby Tenerife Sur Airport in buses and flown out.
10.05.2026, 20:02
SDA
In the late afternoon, four German cruise ship passengers were also on their way back home. A Dutch plane took off from the Canary Island with a total of 26 passengers and crew members of the "Hondius". In addition to Dutch and Germans, there were also Belgians and Greeks on board, all without symptoms, according to the Spanish Ministry of Health.
Three planes had previously taken off from the Spanish vacation island carrying Spaniards, French and Canadians as part of the evacuation operation. Further planes from Great Britain, Ireland, Turkey and the USA are to follow by the evening. On Monday, a further plane from the Netherlands and an aircraft from Australia are to be deployed.
Before disembarkation began, doctors boarded the aircraft to carry out an epidemiological investigation. The good news of the day: all passengers and crew members are without symptoms of the disease, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told journalists at the port. A total of 140 to 150 passengers, crew members and accompanying experts from 23 countries were on board the cruise ship.
Germans fly to Eindhoven
The transportation of the affected Germans will be provided by the Netherlands. Four German passengers are to be taken to Frankfurt after their arrival at Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). Emergency services from the Essen and Frankfurt fire departments have been requested for the transport.
They are to pick up four passengers at the military airport in Eindhoven on Sunday. They will then be transported to Frankfurt in a so-called special isolation transport.
One person will later be taken to the Charité hospital in Berlin. The organization of the transport is currently being discussed, a spokesperson for the Berlin Senate Department for Health told dpa on request. "In this case, admission to the infectiology department of Charité and quarantine by the responsible health authority is planned," it said. According to the information, the person has not yet shown any symptoms.
The Germans, French, British, US-Americans and people of other nationalities affected will come after the Spaniards. In addition to Dutch nationals, the Netherlands would also be taking "citizens from Germany, Belgium and Greece as well as some of the crew", García revealed.
Evacuation before nightfall
Most of the passengers and crew members were to be evacuated before nightfall on Sunday. Aircraft from Spain, the Netherlands, the USA, Great Britain, France, Turkey, Ireland and, as part of the EU disaster control mechanism, an aircraft from Norway would be used.
The last flight with six people is scheduled for Monday to Australia, explained Minister García. "As everyone can see, the evacuation measures are working smoothly."
Images showed the affected Spaniards in white protective suits at the airport being sprayed with disinfectant, among other things, by emergency services wearing masks and full orange protective suits and receiving information leaflets before boarding the plane taking them to Madrid. According to Minister García, all passengers and crew members are only allowed to carry light hand luggage.
According to the ship operator, six Germans on board
The "Hondius" had entered the port of Granadilla in the early morning. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, a mid-single-digit number of German nationals are among them. According to the ship operator Oceanwide, a total of six Germans are on board.
According to the latest information from the WHO, there are six confirmed cases of hantavirus and two suspected cases. Three of these eight people have died. They are an elderly couple from the Netherlands and a woman from Germany. The WHO suspects that the chain of infection started with the Dutch couple, who may have been infected on land before embarking in Argentina.
WHO chief assures: "No new Covid"
Health Minister García, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and the head of the WHO had come to the island especially to oversee the complicated operation. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus assured that the hantavirus is not a pathogen comparable to the coronavirus. In a message directly to the population of Tenerife, he emphasized: "This is not a new Covid." The risk for the people on the island is low - especially as no new suspected case has occurred on the cruise ship.
Pope Leo XIV thanked the people of the Canary Islands for allowing the cruise ship "Hondius" to dock there with the sick people. He was looking forward to his visit to the islands next month, said the Pope, who spoke in Rome at the "Regina Caeli" prayer.
Initially it had been said that the ship would anchor off the port for safety reasons and also due to the concerns of the island government. However, the Spanish merchant navy then granted permission to enter the port during the night. The ship is now anchored there before sailing on to the Netherlands with part of the crew.
What happens to the ship and the people after the evacuation?
According to the WHO and other authorities, all those who have been evacuated will probably have to go into quarantine after their arrival in their respective home countries, as the all-clear can only be given after weeks due to the long incubation period.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), quarantine for those affected in Germany will be decentralized. "The respective local health authorities are responsible," said an RKI spokeswoman. "The responsible health authority will decide on the details, depending on the individual situation and local circumstances." The RKI has published recommendations for this. Among other things, people should remain in quarantine for six weeks after the last possible exposure.
As soon as the people have disembarked, the "Hondius" should immediately continue its journey with part of the crew and head for the Netherlands, under whose flag it is sailing. Only there will the body of a German woman who died on board be removed from the ship. The ship will also be disinfected in the Netherlands.
Virus outbreak causes international concern
The hantavirus is usually transmitted by rodents. However, one type of hantavirus, the South American Andean virus, can in rare cases also jump from person to person. The outbreak of the Andean virus on the small cruise ship caused worldwide concern - also and especially because of the memory of the coronavirus pandemic. In the Canary Islands in particular, people expressed fear of a possible infection with the potentially deadly virus.
However, the current case is different to the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than six years ago. According to the EU health authority ECDC, even if the Andean virus were to be transmitted by evacuated ship passengers, the virus would not be easily transmissible "so it is unlikely that there would be many cases of infection or a large-scale outbreak in the population".
The risk to the general population in the EU from the spread of the Andean virus is "very low". As more than 30 passengers and crew members disembarked during the ship's stopovers, a global search is now underway for potential suspected cases.
Spanish healthcare system tipped the scales
The WHO had asked Spain to let the people disembark on the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa because the archipelago was the first potential destination on the ship's route with first-class healthcare. Cape Verde, where the "Hondius" had last anchored, did not want to accept the passengers, citing the inadequate supply options there.
The "Hondius" began its journey through the South Atlantic in Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1. Ten days later, a Dutchman died; his wife left the ship during a stopover on St. Helena and flew to South Africa on April 24, where she died in hospital shortly afterwards. According to the ship's operator Oceanwide, the third person - the German - finally died on May 3.
