U.S. citizen from hantavirus ship tests positive

The Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius receives provisions from a boat in the port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands on May 11, 2026. Photo by JORGE GUERRERO /AFP via Getty Images

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The operation to repatriate passengers of the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak continued into Monday, as US officials said an American had tested positive for the virus.

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Three passengers from the MV Hondius — a Dutch couple and a German woman — have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

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No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.

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But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The operation evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced on Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands.

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The site of a department for infectious diseases and respiratory medicine, including an isolation ward for treating patients with high consequence infectious diseases is pictured at the Campus Virchow of the Charite hospital in Berlin on May 11, 2026. Photo by ODD ANDERSEN /AFP via Getty Images

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Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew, which include 23 nationalities, would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon.

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The ship will refuel in the morning and is expected to depart for the Netherlands with about 30 crew members at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Monday.

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Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel on Sunday to reach the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife, AFP journalists saw.

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They boarded Spanish army buses and travelled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy before boarding their repatriation flights.

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Garcia told reporters shortly before the operation began that all passengers were asymptomatic and underwent a final medical assessment before disembarking.

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But one of five French people flown back to France was showing hantavirus symptoms, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X, saying all those evacuees “have immediately been placed in strict isolation until further notice”.

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And US health authorities late Sunday said an American passenger had “tested mildly PCR positive” for the virus and that another “has mild symptoms”.

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Persons wearing hazmat suits are pictured as passengers board a plane bound for US carrying passengers evacuated from the Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the Tenerife Sur-Reina Sofia airport on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10, 2026. Photo by ANTONIO SEMPERE /AFP via Getty Images

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Race against time

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A plane arrived in the Netherlands with dozens of people, including Belgian, Greek, German, Guatemalan and Argentine citizens, while flights for Canadian, Turkish, British, Irish and US nationals also left.

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Canary Islands authorities have warned that the operation must be completed by Monday, when adverse weather conditions will force the ship to leave.

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The Atlantic archipelago’s regional government has consistently resisted taking in the ship, which was only authorised to anchor offshore, instead of docking in the port when it arrived early on Sunday morning.