Evacuation flights depart Tenerife after hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

Passengers are being flown to their home countries, where they will face quarantine periods of up to 42 days

Evacuation flights have begun departing Tenerife carrying passengers and crew from a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with travelers being flown to their home countries, where they will face quarantine to prevent further spread of the disease.

According to Reuters, government planes carrying Spanish and French nationals landed in Madrid and Paris on Sunday afternoon, where passengers were transported to hospital.

One of the five French passengers showed symptoms during the repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X.

Flights to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States were due to depart by 8:30 pm local time on Sunday, with final flights departing on Monday by 7:00 pm local time.

Quarantine requirements vary by country

The World Health Organization has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers from the boat from Sunday.

"Our recommendation is daily health checks, at home or in a specialized facility. It's up to countries to develop their policies, but our recommendations are very clear," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, highlighting that the incubation period for the virus was up to six weeks.

Spanish passengers will be kept in hospital for the full 42 days, while French passengers will be hospitalized for 72 hours, then allowed home to self-isolate for a further 45 days, according to the respective governments.

The 17 US passengers from the ship will be given the choice of isolating at home or at a facility in Nebraska, acting US CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

Passengers will be tested upon arrival and then either taken to local hospitals or quarantine facilities, or transported home for isolation.

Deaths and confirmed cases

The virus, usually spread by rodents but also transmissible person-to-person in rare cases of close contact, was first detected by health officials in Johannesburg on May 2. They were treating a British man who fell ill and was taken into intensive care, 21 days after another passenger had died. The man's health has since improved, a WHO official said on Sunday.

The WHO said the first passenger who died on the ship may have been infected before boarding, possibly during travel in Argentina and Chile.

Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a WHO tally from Friday, of which six are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three have died: a Dutch couple and a German national.

Four remain hospitalized in South Africa, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. On the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory, a suspected case is being treated by a team of medical specialists parachuted in by the UK military.

Officials urge calm

Health officials urged calm, reminding a public scarred by the COVID-19 pandemic that this virus was far less contagious and posed little risk to the general population. A woman in Spain who was tested for the virus after sharing a flight with one of the victims tested negative.

"This is not COVID, and we don't want to treat it like COVID," Bhattacharya said.

Spain's health ministry also downplayed the risk to the broader population and added that rodents had not been detected aboard the ship.

How passengers were evacuated

The luxury cruise ship left for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union asked the country to manage the evacuation following the outbreak detection.

Passengers were taken from the ship to shore in small boats and transported to Tenerife airport in military buses, without coming into contact with the public.

Thirty crew members will remain on board and sail to the Netherlands on Monday evening, where the ship will be disinfected.

Turkish birdwatcher Emin Yogurtcuoglu, a passenger on the ship, wrote in a public post on Instagram: "Thank God we are all fine... I hope we'll get through the quarantine process smoothly and be able to see family and friends again."