Here's the latest
• Eighteen people bound for the US were among the dozens of passengers who disembarked the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak on Sunday. The ship docked in Tenerife, Canary Islands, for a carefully managed operation evacuating passengers and escorting them to flights arranged by multiple nations. More evacuations will take place Monday.
• One French passenger showed symptoms while flying home, and all five evacuees on that flight will enter isolation protocols, the country’s prime minister said. Passengers had been screened on the ship Sunday morning and were all asymptomatic at the time, according to Spanish health authorities.
• Since the vessel departed Argentina last month, the deaths of three people have been linked to hantavirus — a rare disease typically caused by exposure to infected rats’ urine or feces. It remains a low risk to the general public, according to the World Health Organization, and health officials have emphasized how the virus differs from Covid-19.
Evacuation of hantavirus-stricken cruise ship concludes for the day
The first day of evacuations from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak has concluded on Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said at a news conference at the port on Sunday.
A total of 94 people of 19 nationalities disembarked from the MV Hondius, with García saying the operation went “according to plan.”
The final two flights, which will evacuate people to Australia and the Netherlands, will depart tomorrow, the health minister said, with those passengers set to spend another night on board the ship tonight.
The plane heading for Australia is expected to depart around 6 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) on Monday, García added.
US citizens evacuate from cruise ship
Passengers headed to the United States have disembarked the MV Hondius, Spanish authorities told a CNN team in Tenerife, Canary Islands, where the vessel was docked Sunday for a carefully managed evacuation operation.
The passengers could be seen wearing blue protective clothing and masks aboard smaller boats transporting them from the cruise ship to shore.
Seventeen American citizens had been on board the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship as it underwent a quarantine period at sea, following an outbreak of the rare disease believed to have caused the deaths of three people.
A total of 18 people — all of the Americans and one British national who resides in the US — made up the group of evacuees bound for the US, the Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said at a news conference.
The group will be transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which is home to the National Quarantine Unit, a federally funded facility.
On arrival, the US passengers will be checked for any symptoms signaling the early stages of the virus, such as fever, muscle aches and diarrhea, the interim chancellor of the hospital, Dr. H. Dele Davis, told CNN.
This post has been updated with the total number of evacuees headed to the United States.
US passengers expected to be next group evacuated from cruise ship
The American passengers on the MV Hondius are expected to be the next group to evacuate the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, Spanish authorities said.
With the disembarkation process set to conclude at sunset, in around an hour’s time in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the 17 Americans will likely be the final group to evacuate before the operation continues tomorrow morning.
These are the evacuation flights that have taken off so far
Dozens of passengers have disembarked from the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, and evacuation flights have been taking off from Tenerife, Canary Islands.
While Spanish health authorities said passengers were screened while still aboard the cruise ship and were asymptomatic, one French passenger has since shown symptoms during the flight home. All five evacuees on that flight will enter isolation protocols upon landing, according to the French prime minister.
Here’s how many people have taken off on flights so far, according to the Spanish Health Ministry:
- 14 people to Madrid
- Five people to France
- Four people to Canada
- 26 people to the Netherlands
- 22 people to the United Kingdom
- Two people to Ireland
- Three people to Turkey
Upcoming flights include planes bound for the United States and Australia, according to the ministry.
French passenger evacuated from ship showed hantavirus symptoms on return flight
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has confirmed that one of the five French nationals repatriated from Tenerife on Sunday showed symptoms of hantavirus while on board the flight returning them to France.
“As a result, these five passengers were immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice,” Lecornu said in a post on X on Sunday.
They are receiving medical care and will undergo testing and a full health assessment, he said.
Lecornu said he would issue a decree later this evening to implement isolation measures for close contacts and protect the public.
Passengers began to disembark the hantavirus cruise ship today. Catch up here
Passengers began to disembark the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak today, Spain’s Ministry of Health said, in a carefully managed repatriation operation involving multiple nations.
The disembarkation process will continue until sunset, before restarting Monday morning, according to Diana Rojas Alvarez, health operations lead at the World Health Organization.
Here’s what happened today:
- The passengers were seen clad in personal protective equipment, with some pointing their phones toward the shore where the world’s media awaited them. Spanish medical officials and military personal in full hazmat suits and FFP2 face masks began bringing small groups of passengers — themselves wearing protective attire — onto smaller boats, then leading them to shore, where they were put on buses bound for Tenerife Sur Airport.
- All of the passengers who were on board the cruise ship are asymptomatic and the evacuation operation was going as planned, a spokesperson for Spain’s Health Ministry said in an update Sunday morning.
- A plane carrying 14 Spanish passengers who were on the ship later landed at Torrejon de Ardoz military airport, east of the capital Madrid, Spain’s Defense Ministry said.
- US residents from the ship will be given the option to go home if safety protocols allow, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said.
- British Army medics parachuted onto the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to treat a UK national with a suspected hantavirus case, who had departed the ship previous to the outbreak being known.
CNN’s Laura Sharman, Vasco Cotovio, James Frater, Sophie Tanno, Georgiana Ralphs, Pau Mosquera, Aileen Graef and Christian Edwards contributed reporting.
Acting CDC chief pushes back on criticism of hantavirus response: "This is not Covid"
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pushed back Sunday against criticism of the agency’s response to the hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship, saying the public shouldn’t “be panicking.”
Health experts say the CDC has taken on a diminished role during the outbreak. Authorities from other countries largely led the response last week, as the US agency did not quickly dispatch investigators or hold televised news conferences as it would have done previously in similar outbreaks, according to the Associated Press.
Global health officials have emphasized that the public health risk remains low from hantavirus, saying human-to-human transmission is generally considered rare and that the virus does not spread in the same way as flu or Covid-19.
Bhattacharya said the CDC has followed protocols that were used successfully in response to a previous outbreak.
“We shouldn’t be panicking when the evidence doesn’t warrant it,” he said.
The Trump administration faced scrutiny last year after making deep cuts to staffing at the CDC, including layoffs of disease detectives and outbreak forecasters as part of a larger effort to cut government spending.
Tracking key events in the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak
The cruise ship where a hantavirus outbreak left three people dead and several others ill is now docked in the Canary Islands, where passengers are going through screening and disembarking.
This timeline breaks down key moments leading up to today:
WHO says more than 40 passengers have disembarked the ship
As many as 46 people have so far disembarked the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius cruise ship, according to Diana Rojas Alvarez, health operations lead at the World Health Organization.
The disembarkation process will continue until sunset, before restarting tomorrow morning, Alvarez said at a press conference Sunday.
So far, passengers from Spain, France, Canada and the Netherlands have been evacuated, according to WHO. Alvarez said all remaining passengers are expected to disembark by Monday evening. There were a total of 146 passengers and crew onboard when the ship arrived in Tenerife.
The MV Hondius will then travel to its “original port” in the Netherlands, Alvarez said. It will be staffed by 30 crew members, along with a medical team, she added.
Also at the press conference, Maria Van Kerkhove, director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management, praised the “incredible coordination” involved in the process between WHO, Spain and other nations.
US residents from cruise ship will have option to return home under safety protocols
US residents from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will be given the option to go home if safety protocols allow, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said Sunday.
“So, there are already … seven Americans that already flew back home, I think, two or three weeks ago, and are in various states, including in California, in Texas, Virginia and Georgia,” Bhattacharya told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Bhattacharya, who is also acting director of the Centers for Disease Control, said the CDC will interview the remaining people to determine their risk. They will be deemed “low risk” if they were not in contact with someone who was symptomatic.
Bhattacharya said the CDC’s advice to the travelers would include “an offer to stay in Nebraska if they’d like,” after they go through screening at a medical center in the state. But they could also return home, if circumstances allow to “safely drive them home without exposing other people on the way, and then be put in the control … under the auspices of their state and local public health agencies,” he added.
Bhattacharya said the agency is following the safety protocols previously used in a 2018 outbreak of the same strain.
Spanish passengers arrive at military airport near Madrid
A plane carrying 14 Spanish passengers who were on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has landed at Torrejon de Ardoz military airport, east of the capital Madrid, Spain’s Defense Ministry said.
The passengers — who left on a specially-chartered flight from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, earlier today — will be taken directly to the military hospital Gomez Ulla, in the capital.
More flights are set to repatriate the other cruise ship passengers, and some of the ship’s crew, later today.
Aerial footage released by Spanish government captures new angle of evacuation operation
Aerial footage from the Guardia Civil, Spain’s national law enforcement, reveals the moment passengers first stepped off the MV Hondius.
This new angle shows the operation to evacuate passengers onto a smaller boat, which then ferried them into Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.
The passengers can then be seen taking their first steps back on dry land at the port of Granadilla de Abona, carrying their luggage with them in plastic bags.
The footage ends with the first passenger being greeted at the port by two officials - one offering hand sanitiser and the other a welcoming nod.
US passengers will be monitored in specially-designed rooms, medical center chief says
The Nebraska medical center where US passengers on the hantavirus-hit cruise ship will be taken to and monitored is the only one of its kind, the interim chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center told CNN.
The center is the only nationally-designated facility for such monitoring purposes. It is specially designed with “negative pressure rooms,” which ensure that any kind of deadly disease is contained within, Dr. H. Dele Davis said.
It also has controls that allow for the filtering of any air that leaves the rooms, which are designed like hotel rooms, complete with exercise equipment as well as room service, monitors and WiFi, Dr. Davis said.
On arrival, the passengers will be checked for any symptoms signalling the early stages of the virus, such as fever, muscle aches and diarrhoea, he added.
If any of the patients do start to exhibit symptoms, the center has a host of medical workers ready as well as a bio-containment unit where patients with Covid and Ebola have previously been held.
Asked about the risk to the wider US public as the cruise ship passengers are set to return, Dr. Davis said it was low.
However, he added, “If you do get it, then the disease itself can be very highly deadly.”
All passengers on hantavirus cruise ship are asymptomatic, Spain's Health Ministry says
All of the passengers who were on board the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are asymptomatic and the evacuation operation is going as planned, a spokesperson for Spain’s Health Ministry said Sunday.
After docking in the Canary Islands at 6:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET), a member of the ministry boarded the vessel at 7:30 a.m. to assess the patients’ health. All of them were found to be asymptomatic, the spokesperson said in an update a short time ago.
Spanish passengers began to disembark at 9:30 a.m. local time and a flight carrying them to Madrid has already left the island, she said.
Passengers from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, Turkey, the US and Ireland will be next to disembark, she added.
Watch as first passengers leave hantavirus-hit cruise ship
Fresh video captures the first passengers sailing towards land after disembarking the MV Hondius.
The passengers can be seen clad in personal protective equipment, with some pointing their phones towards the shore where the world’s media awaits.
The footage then captures the moment passengers begin boarding a bus to Tenerife South Airport.
MV Hondius cruise ship arrives in Tenerife as passengers disembark - in pictures
These are the latest images we’re seeing from the port of Granadilla de Abona after the arrival of the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Spanish medical officials and military personal in full hazmat suits and FFP2 face masks helped passengers from the ship onto smaller boats, before leading them to shore, as we’ve been reporting.
British medics parachute onto remote island to treat suspected hantavirus case
British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to treat a UK national with a suspected hantavirus case.
The team, consisting of six paratroopers and two military clinicians, parachuted from a transport aircraft, while vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were air dropped almost simultaneously.
The medics were dispatched to deliver critical medical support after it was confirmed that one British national on the island was suspected of contracting the virus.
It marks the first time the UK military has parachuted-in medical personnel to provide humanitarian support.
Tristan da Cunha, a group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, is Britian’s most remote inhabited overseas territory. With a population of 221 people, it is normally accessible only by boat.
World's media descends on Tenerife as operation to evacuate passengers starts
The highly anticipated and much contested disembarkation operation of the MV Hondius cruise ship is finally underway.
Spanish medical officials and military personal in full hazmat suits and FFP2 face masks have begun bringing small groups of passengers - they themselves wearing hazmat costumes - onto smaller boats, then leading them to shore, where they’re being put on buses towards Tenerife Sur airport.
It’s a complex operation and a surreal scene reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic just a few years ago.
The global outbreak of the coronavirus and its painful memories are very much at the forefront of peoples minds here in Tenerife, where local leaders have vehemently contested the disembarkation, and some of the local population has gathered in protest over the past few days.
The WHO has acknowledged those fears and in a passionate letter to the people of the Canary Islands, director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to provide reassurance, recognising “the pain of 2020 is still real.”
Still, it’s no surprise the world’s media has descended on the small port of Granadilla.
More than 100 news crews are covering every moment of this detailed choreography that will see the passengers and some the crew disembark and repatriated over the next two days, before the cruise ship departs towards it’s final destination in the Netherlands
Here's what we know about the suspected hantavirus outbreak so far
Health authorities across several countries are racing to trace and contain an outbreak of hantavirus after the World Health Organization said that five confirmed infections had been identified among people connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius.
The virus is typically associated with rodents, but it may have passed from human to human aboard the vessel, according to WHO. Since April 11, three people from the ship have died, while a handful of others are sick.
The outbreak was first reported to WHO on May 2 and remains a low risk to the general public, the organization says. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified its hantavirus response as level 3, the agency’s lowest level of emergency, according to a person involved in the situation.
Spanish authorities will conduct a full epidemiological investigation and disinfect the ship after it docks in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where WHO believes the port has the right conditions for passengers to safely disembark.
Hantavirus-hit cruise passengers arrive in Tenerife
Passengers have begun to disembark the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s ministry of health said, in a carefully managed repatriation operation involving multiple nations.
The vessel, MV Hondius, had earlier this morning docked at the Spanish Island of Tenerife carrying 147 people. Passengers were seen being ferried in small boats from the cruise ship anchored at the Port of Granadilla to the island.
Silhouettes appeared at the vessel’s curtained windows as a tugboat approached below, while a masked individual stood at the open door. People in hazmat suits and officials in “World Health Organization” uniforms, meantime, waited by the dockside.
Medical teams boarded the ship to run tests on passengers and crew, Spain’s health minister Mónica García said shortly before 8 a.m. The passengers will then be evacuated to their home countries.
