US passengers from the Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius are transferred by boat to the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on 10 May, 2026.
Photo: AFP
Australians and a New Zealander will be the last to be evacuated from a cruise ship that has been hit by the hantavirus.
Passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship have started to disembark marking a long and complex evacuation process that will see 149 passengers and crew ferried to shore on small boats, then flown to their home countries.
The ABC reports that a group of four Australians and one permanent resident, as well as one New Zealander on board the ship will be among the last to disembark, due to the length of time it will take for their repatriation flight to arrive from Australia.
Reuters correspondent Victoria Waldersee told Morning Report passengers clad in protective gear were taken off the ship in small boats grouped by nationality and brought to the shore of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
They were then transported by military buses to the airport which was a 10 minute drive away and put on planes provided by their respective governments to take them back to their home country, she said.
The process was designed to ensure there was no contact with any members of the public and passengers were only taken off the boat when their evacuation plane had arrived.
Most people had already been evacuated but the flight to Australia which will also carry the passenger from New Zealand is not set to arrive until tomorrow evening, she said.
The other one to leave tomorrow is a flight from the Netherlands which will take passengers from a host of different countries whose governments had not provided a plane, Waldersee said.
Turkish citizens prepare to board a plane bound for Turkey carrying evacuated passengers at the Tenerife Sur-Reina Sofia airport on the island of Tenerife on 10 May, 2026.
Photo: AFP
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship before the outbreak was declared have been confirmed to have been infected with hantavirus.
One of five French people flown back to France is showing symptoms of hantavirus, the French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said.
“One of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane,” he posted on X. “These five passengers have immediately been placed in strict isolation until further notice.
“They are getting medical treatment and will have tests and a medical check-up,” he added.
The jet carrying the evacuated French cruise ship passengers landed a little before 4.30pm Sunday local time at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, AFP journalists saw.
Shortly afterwards, they were transferred to a convoy of five ambulances and taken under police escort to the Bichat hospital in Paris.
The World Health Organisation has recommended that people evacuated from the cruise ship should quarantine for at least 42 days of quarantine either at home or in hospital and daily health checks.
But the actual quarantine process is being managed by each individual country, Waldersee said.
Health officials sought to reassure Tenerife locals that the evacuees would not come into any contact with the island’s population and informed them that hantavirus was only transmissible between humans who had very close contact.
– RNZ / ABC/ AFP / Reuters