After hantavirus outbreak Swiss crew member is still on board the "MV Hondius"

Following a hantavirus outbreak on board, the cruise ship "MV Hondius" has arrived in Tenerife under strict safety precautions. Now the passengers are being evacuated.

Keystone-SDA

10.05.2026, 03:20

10.05.2026, 14:01

SDA

The cruise ship "Hondius", affected by an outbreak of hantavirus, entered the port of Granadilla in the south of the Spanish vacation island of Tenerife on Sunday morning. Live footage from the state television station RTVE showed the ship arriving early in the morning.

From Granadilla, the people on board the "Hondius", including several Germans, are to be taken to a nearby airport under strict security precautions and flown immediately to their home countries.

The people on the ship are currently being evacuated. According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, the first passengers left the cruise ship on Sunday morning. They boarded small boats that sailed towards the port of Granadilla on Tenerife.

Six Spanish citizens are already on the first bus to take them to Tenerife South Airport, as the Spanish daily newspaper "El Mundo" reports. They are dressed in blue overalls and masks. Eight more people are to board a second bus shortly afterwards.

Swiss national on board

One Swiss national is still on board the "MV Hondius". According to the Federal Office of Public Health, this is a crew member, as they told "Blick". The man is considered a contact person, but has not yet shown any symptoms.

The man will only return to Switzerland at the end of the six-week quarantine period, a spokeswoman for the FOPH told Blick. It also said that the Dutch authorities were responsible for the transportation and quarantine of the crew members.

WHO chief assures: "No new Covid"

Spain's Health Minister Mónica García, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and the head of the World Health Organization (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 people on the island is low - especially as no new suspected case has occurred on the cruise ship.

Initially it had been reported that the ship would be anchored outside the port for safety reasons. However, the Spanish merchant navy then granted permission to enter the port during the night.

Medical staff test people on board

According to the Spanish authorities, medical personnel will first examine the people on board for acute symptoms of illness. If there are none, the passengers will be disembarked in groups of a maximum of five people. According to García, they must wear FFP2 masks and are only allowed to take light hand luggage with them.

They are then taken by bus to the airport, which is just a few minutes' drive away. There, the strictly isolated people and their respective compatriots are to board the planes provided for them immediately without further processing and be taken back to their home countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), all flights are scheduled to depart on Sunday and Monday, as a bad weather front is expected to move in later. After arrival, all those flown out will probably have to go into quarantine, as it will take weeks to give the all-clear due to the long incubation period.

As soon as the people have disembarked, the "Hondius" is to continue its journey immediately 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, but can also jump from person to person if there is close contact. The outbreak of the South American Andes variant of the virus on the small cruise ship caused concern worldwide - also and especially because of the memory of the coronavirus pandemic. People in the Canary Islands in particular expressed fear of 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".

In the case of the "Hondius", the WHO speaks of six confirmed cases of hantavirus and two suspected cases. Three of these eight people have died. The fatalities are an elderly couple from the Netherlands and the woman from Germany. As more than 30 passengers and crew members got off the ship during stopovers, a worldwide 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 shortly afterwards in a hospital. According to the ship operator Oceanwide, the German woman then died on May 3.

The WHO suspects that the chain of infection started with the deceased Dutch couple, who may have been infected on land before embarking in Argentina.