![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/plans-in-place-to-bring-irish-passengers-on-virus-hit-ship-home-say-officials.jpg\")
Workers set up temporary shelters at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife where passengers are expected to disembark from the MV Hondius (Manu Fernandez\/AP)<\/p>\nPlans are in place to bring home the two Irish nationals on board a virus-hit cruise ship, the Department of Health has said.<\/p>\n
Three people have died following an outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius, which is expected to dock in Tenerife, one of Spain\u2019s Canary Islands, early on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In a statement the department said public health protocols will be followed once the ship has docked to assess and certify the health of passengers on board.<\/p>\n
This will be overseen by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Spanish authorities.<\/p>\n
Workers set up temporary shelters at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife where passengers are expected to disembark from the MV Hondius (Manu Fernandez\/AP)<\/p>\n
Depending on their health when they disembark, the two Irish passengers will be transferred \u201cdirectly\u201d to Ireland.<\/p>\n
Once in the country, they will be taken to a Health Service Executive (HSE) facility where they will be monitored while quarantining.<\/p>\n
A Department of Health spokesperson said: \u201cIf they become symptomatic, they will be assessed and treated as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre has arranged for a medical evacuation aircraft to be available on the Spanish island for passengers who become symptomatic.<\/p>\n
Both Irish passengers are said to be \u201cwell\u201d, but authorities say if they become symptomatic before disembarkation, they will be medically evacuated on this aircraft.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that there were currently no symptomatic passengers on board the ship.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health says it, and the HSE, are monitoring the situation \u201cclosely\u201d and are working with the WHO, EU bodies and member states and officials in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Both the ECDC and WHO have said the risk to public health from hantavirus is low.<\/p>\n
But the Department of Health has said an incident management team at the National Health Protection Office (NHPO) has been stood up and is co-ordinating the public health response.<\/p>\n
The WHO said there had been six confirmed hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius ship and that four patients were currently in hospital.<\/p>\n
It added that a total of eight cases, including three deaths, had been reported \u2013 with one suspected case being reclassified after testing negative for hantavirus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans are in place to bring home the two Irish nationals on board a virus-hit cruise ship, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-440801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440801","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=440801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}