Spain Hantavirus during cruise: passengers travel to home countries
The journey home from Tenerife for the German and other European passengers of the cruise ship "Hondius" affected by a hantavirus outbreak is safe, according to the Spanish Minister of the Interior. "I can confirm that the repatriation flights to France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands are already planned", said Fernando Grande-Marlaska at a joint press conference with Health Minister Mónica García in Madrid.
09.05.2026, 21:11
SDA
The risk for the people on the Canary Island of Tenerife is low - especially as no new suspected case has occurred on the cruise ship "Hondius", wrote the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a publication in which he addressed the population of Tenerife directly.
Transportation of cruise passengers in sealed vehicles
According to Tedros, the passengers will be brought ashore in the industrial port of Granadilla, transported in sealed and escorted vehicles along a completely closed corridor and returned directly to their countries of origin. "You will have no contact with them - nor will their families," Tedros wrote to the people of Tenerife.
The WHO director reiterated that the hantavirus that has emerged is not a virus comparable to coronavirus. "This is not a new Covid."
The German authorities did not initially provide any precise information on repatriation. There are passengers and crew members from 23 countries on the cruise ship.
Germans also on board the ship
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, there is a mid-single-digit number of people with German citizenship on board the ship. The principle of place of residence determines which health authority is responsible. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recommends in a handout for the public health service that passengers should remain in quarantine for six weeks after the last possible exposure. Home quarantine is possible in principle, but depends on various factors.
Passengers should leave after daybreak
The "Hondius" is expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in the south of Tenerife on Sunday morning between 4.00 and 6.00 am local time (5.00 and 7.00 am CEST), Spain's Health Minister García announced. However, the disembarkation of the people will not begin until daylight.
All passengers on board will be checked for symptoms of illness. The 14 Spaniards will probably be the first to be taken to nearby Tenerife South Airport, from where they will be flown to Madrid on a military plane to go into quarantine in a hospital there.
Only when a plane is ready for take-off at the airport will members of the same nationality be taken ashore by a small boat from the cruise ship, which will then be anchored, and taken by bus directly to the tarmac to their plane, García explained. The suitcases would have to remain on board with the exception of light hand luggage.
Ship is disinfected in the Netherlands
Once disembarkation is complete, the "Hondius" will continue its journey to the Netherlands with a remaining crew. The body of a German woman who died on board during the cruise will not be brought ashore on Tenerife. The ship will be disinfected there in consultation with the Netherlands, the Spanish health minister emphasized.
The planning for the arrival, including examinations and quarantine procedures, would be the responsibility of various organizations, including the WHO, the EU and Dutch and Spanish health authorities, García explained. She confirmed information from the operator of the ship that no one on the "Hondius" is currently showing symptoms.
Six confirmed cases of hantavirus and two suspected cases
The ship had set sail from Cape Verde for the Canary Islands on Wednesday evening. The "Hondius" had originally started its journey in southern Argentina at the beginning of April.
In an update late on Friday evening, the WHO spoke of six confirmed hantavirus cases and two suspected cases. Three of these eight people have died. They are an elderly couple from the Netherlands and a woman from Germany.
Argentina: Infection not in Tierra del Fuego
It is still unclear where the people were infected with the virus. According to the local authorities in Argentina, the origin of the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship is not in the Argentinian province of Tierra del Fuego (Tierra del Fuego). "The probability that the infection occurred here is practically zero," said Juan Petrina, Director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Health of the province in the far south of the country.
According to the Ministry of Health of Tierra del Fuego, the Dutch couple who died from the infection had arrived in the provincial capital of Ushuaia on March 29 after a month-long journey through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and had embarked on the "Hondius" on April 1. The two had already shown the first symptoms on April 6, but the incubation period of the hantavirus is at least two to three weeks. "These times do not match an infection in Tierra del Fuego," said Petrina.
