Spain Ship affected by virus outbreak arrives in Tenerife
The cruise ship "Hondius", affected by an outbreak of hantavirus, has arrived in the port of Granadilla in the south of the Spanish vacation island of Tenerife. Live footage from the state television station RTVE showed the ship's arrival in the early morning.
10.05.2026, 07:40
10.05.2026, 08:52
SDA
From Granadilla, the people on board the "Hondius" are to be taken to a nearby airport under strict safety precautions and flown immediately to their home countries.
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 the 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 anchor outside the port for safety reasons. However, the Spanish merchant navy then granted permission to enter the port during the night.
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 take off 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 worldwide concern - also and especially because of the memory of the corona pandemic. In the Canary Islands in particular, people 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 "Hondius", the WHO speaks of six confirmed hantavirus cases 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" had begun its journey through the South Atlantic on April 1 in Ushuaia in southern Argentina. 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 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.
