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Agence France-Presse

UK health authorities are gearing up to receive about 24 people from a virus-hit cruise ship, who will be isolated in a hospital once used for Covid-19 patients, NHS officials said Saturday.
They are currently on board the Dutch ship, the MV Hondius, due to anchor off Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday.
Most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home to their home countries after weeks at sea, in a carefully prepared repatriation effort.
Among them are about 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland.
None are currently showing any symptoms of hantavirus.

“In line with advice from the UK Health Security Agency, on arrival they will be taken to a managed setting for clinical assessment and testing,” NHS England North West and NHS Cheshire said.
The joint statement with Wirral council and local ambulance and police said the group would initially stay for 72 hours, and arrangements for their further isolation assessed.
An internal email shared with Agence France-Presse confirmed the group of about 24 people would be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in northwestern Wirral.
It was used to isolate people returning from Wuhan in China and the cruise ship Diamond Princess at the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Since the start of the outbreak, three passengers from the ship – a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman – have died.
Others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
The WHO said on Friday it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship.




The MV Hondius is sailing from Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, where three infected people had already been evacuated earlier in the week.
It was expected to arrive in Tenerife between 0300 and 0500 GMT on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez said.
“We will be welcoming the guests on Sunday 10 May 2026 and they will all be screened for symptoms before they arrive on-site; nobody showing any symptoms will be transferred here,” said Janelle Holmes, chief executive for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, in her email to staff.
“The risk to the general population remains very low and the public can be reassured that established infection control measures will be put in place at every step of the journey,” she added.
Irish officials are also finalising plans to send a plane to repatriate two Irish nationals, radio and television station RTE said.


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Britain

Hantavirus outbreak: UK to isolate cruise ship passengers in ex-Covid hospital

Passengers on the MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain’s port of Tenerife on  Wednesday. Photo: AP

Buildings at Arrowe Park Hospital are pictured in Wirral, England, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

WHO boss arrives in Spain to oversee ship evacuation amid more suspected hantavirus cases

Sant Joan university hospital, where a woman with symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection is being treated, is seen in Alicante, Spain, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Workers set up temporary shelters on Saturday in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Spain. Photo: AP

A biohazard suit for staff in an isolation unit at a hospital in Tenerife on Friday. Photo: EPA

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia addresses a press conference about the hantavirus outbreak on Saturday. Photo: EPA

‘Almost zero’ chance Dutch man got hantavirus in Argentina’s Ushuaia, official says

A scientist from the Malbran Institute holds a container used to diagnose the Andes hantavirus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday. Photo: Argentine Health Ministry via AFP

Juan Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, is seen after a news conference in Ushuaia, Argentina, on Friday. Photo: AFP

Singapore pair test negative for hantavirus after cruise ship outbreak

Singapores National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). Photo: AFP

Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius watch epidemiologists come aboard on Wednesday during their voyage to Tenerife. Photo: AP 

Spain to repatriate guests as hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads for Canaries

Members of the media await the arrival of the cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, Spain, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

The fate of the MV Hondius has prompted international concern after it emerged that three people on board have died since the cruise ship departed Argentina in April. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

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There are around 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland, on board the MV Hondius


There are around 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland, on board the MV Hondius.


Hantavirus outbreak: UK to isolate cruise ship passengers in ex-Covid hospital

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}There are around 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland, on board the MV Hondius

There are around 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland, on board the MV Hondius