{"id":440417,"date":"2026-05-09T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T14:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440417\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T14:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T14:22:08","slug":"ireland-sending-plane-to-evacuate-citizens-from-cruise-ship-hit-by-deadly-hantavirus-outbreak-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440417\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland sending plane to evacuate citizens from cruise ship hit by deadly hantavirus outbreak \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands will \u200bsend planes to evacuate their citizens aboard the Tenerife-bound cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus<\/a> outbreak, Spain<\/a>\u2019s interior minister said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The European Union<\/a> is sending two further planes for remaining European citizens, Fernando Grande-Marlaska added.<\/p>\n

The United States<\/a> and United Kingdom<\/a> \u200bhave confirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were unable to send air transport, he said. <\/p>\n

World \u2060Health Organisation<\/a> (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/a> is meeting Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, in Madrid on \u200cSaturday \u200c\u200band will then travel to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, alongside Spain\u2019s interior and health ministers, to co-ordinate the arrival of the MV Hondius. It is expected to \u2060anchor near the island early on Sunday morning. <\/p>\n

Local authorities have warned the evacuation \u200bmust take place between Sunday midday and Monday afternoon before conditions at sea are expected to take a \u200cturn for the worse until the end \u200bof May due to stormy weather.<\/p>\n

The MV Hondius left for Spain on Wednesday from \u2060the coast of Cape Verde after the \u2060WHO and European \u200bUnion asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers on-board after the hantavirus outbreak was detected. <\/p>\n

The WHO said on Friday that eight people had fallen ill, including three who died \u2013 a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of these people are confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases, the WHO has said.<\/p>\n

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but can in rare cases be transmitted person-to-person. All passengers as well as 17 \u200ccrew members will be \u2060evacuated but 30 crew will stay on board and travel on to the Netherlands, Spain\u2019s health minister, Monica Garcia, said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0If MV Hondius isn\u2019t the start of a hantavirus pandemic, it might prove the end of something elseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Luggage and the body of a deceased passenger on the \u200cship will remain on board and the ship will be fully disinfected on arrival, she added.<\/p>\n

Spanish citizens will disembark first, \u200bwith the order of evacuation of the remaining groups of citizens to \u200bbe determined by health authorities. Citizens will not be able to disembark until their evacuation plane is ready to depart, Grande-Marlaska said. <\/p>\n

Ghebreyesus published a direct message on Saturday to the people of Tenerife, in which he said: \u201cIt is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is necessary. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word \u2018outbreak\u2019 and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another Covid. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Andes strain of hantavirus on the ship \u201cis serious\u201d but added: \u201cThe risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO\u2019s assessment, and we do not make it lightly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board. A WHO expert is on that ship. Medical supplies are in place. Spain\u2019s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries. You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them.\u201d \u2013 Reuters\/The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands will \u200bsend planes to evacuate their citizens aboard the Tenerife-bound cruise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17979,5148,1814,188479,61,60,5151,43,32238,2846,141971,303,115,31614],"class_list":["post-440417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-belgium","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-hantavirus","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-spain","tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}