The port was asked by Dutch authorities last week if they could take in the vessel. “I think it’s unacceptable to say no, you’re not welcome in the biggest port of Europe,” the port’s harbormaster, René de Vries, told the AP.
Some two dozen passengers and crew are already in quarantine in the Netherlands after arriving in the country on a series of flights over the previous two weeks.
The outbreak on the ship has reached at least 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said one of the four Canadians in isolation after leaving the ship had tested positive Sunday and that it would share information on the case with the World Health Organization.
Eighteen Americans are currently under observation at specialized healthcare facilities in the United States designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases.
The Paris public hospital authority said Monday that the French cruise passenger being treated for hantavirus is not in fact treated with an artificial lung, but remains in intensive care.
Last week, an official at Bichat Hospital told reporters that the patient was on a life-support system that pumps blood through an artificial lung. In a statement Monday, the hospital authority said that was not the case, though the gravity of the patient’s condition ″could lead to needing to use this type of treatment.″ The organization would not explain the mistake or further comment on the patient, citing medical privacy.
France’s Pasteur Institute said on Saturday it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger from the MV Hondius and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous.
Lead image caption: The MV Hondius cruise ship arrives at the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 18, 2026 — CREDIT AP Photo/Patrick Post