The cruise ship “Hondius” affected by a hantavirus outbreak is expected to arrive on the island of Tenerife early Sunday morning.
May 10, 2026, 06:40May 10, 2026, 06:40
From there, the people on board will be flown to their home countries. Then a 40-day odyssey ends for the almost 150 people on board the Dutch ship, which began on April 1st in Ushuaia in southern Argentina and took a dramatic turn along the way.
The “Hondius” is on its way to Tenerife.Image: keystone
According to the Spanish Interior Minister, the journey home of the German and other European passengers and crew members is secured. “I can confirm that the repatriation flights to France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands are already planned,” said Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Saturday at a joint press conference with Health Minister Mónica García in Madrid.
The risk for the people on the island is low, especially since no new suspected case has occurred on the “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.
Ship passengers transfer to sealed vehicles
According to Tedros, the passengers will be disembarked at the industrial port of Granadilla, escorted in sealed vehicles through a completely cordoned off corridor and returned directly to their countries of origin. “You will have no contact with them – nor will your families,” Tedros assured the people of Tenerife.
Locals also worried about Covid reminder
Significant concerns about the ship’s arrival had been raised on the island in recent days. Many people were reminded of the corona pandemic. The head of the Canary Islands’ government, Fernando Clavijo, said he would only be reassured when all the ship’s passengers had left the island and the “Hondius” had continued its journey to the Netherlands.
However, the WHO director once again reassured that the hantavirus that had emerged was not a virus comparable to Corona. “This is not a new Covid.” The cruise ship has guests and crew members from 23 countries.
Passengers are scheduled to depart after daybreak
The “Hondius” is expected on Sunday morning between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time (5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. CEST) in front of the port of Granadilla in the south of Tenerife, García announced. But people should only leave the ship at daylight. The operator Oceanwide said the ship was expected to arrive at 5:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m. CEST). About two and a half hours later, all guests and some of the crew should begin to be taken off board in controlled groups and then taken “immediately to the aircraft assigned to them”.
Beforehand, all passengers on board would be checked for symptoms of illness, explained García. The 14 Spaniards are expected to be the first to be taken to the nearby Tenerife South Airport, from where they will be flown on a military plane to Madrid to be quarantined in a hospital.
Only when a plane is ready to take off at the airport are members of the same nationality brought ashore from the cruise ship in a small boat 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 a light hand luggage.
Ship is to be disinfected in the Netherlands
When the disembarkation is complete, the “Hondius” will continue its journey to the Netherlands with the remaining crew. The body of a German who died on board during the cruise will not be brought ashore in Tenerife, explained García. The health minister emphasized that the ship would only be disinfected there in consultation with the Netherlands.
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 older couple from the Netherlands and the woman from Germany. The WHO suspects that the chain of infection started from the Dutch couple, who may have become infected on land before embarking in Argentina. According to Oceanwide, the remaining passengers on the “Hondius” are all symptom-free.
Transmission also possible from person to person
Hantaviruses are usually transmitted by infected rodents such as rats or mice. The current outbreak is about the so-called Andes type, in which human-to-human transmission has already been documented in individual cases in the past.
Swiss researchers have decoded the genome of an Andes virus that came from a cruise passenger from Switzerland. Whether the virus has genetic peculiarities that could possibly have promoted an infection still needs to be carefully examined, said microbiologist Roman Wölfel from the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich. “At this point in time, no reliable conclusions can be drawn from this.” (sda/dpa)