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LAST UPDATE | 9 May
TWO IRISH PEOPLE on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius will be repatriated to Ireland once they arrive in Tenerife, the Department of Health said.
Spain’s interior minister earlier said that repatriation flights for passengers and crew members on board the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak have been planned to five EU countries, including Ireland.
Fernando Grande-Marlaska said flights have also been organised to the US and the UK.
“With regard to member states of the European Union with nationals amongst the crew and passengers, I can confirm that we have already planned the repatriation flights to France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands,” he told a press conference earlier.
For passengers from countries that do not have the air resources to repatriate their nationals, he said Spanish authorities were forming a plan with the Netherlands and the ship’s owner and insurer.
There are two Irish passengers on board the virus-hit cruise ship.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the department understands the cruise ship MV Hondius is currently expected to dock in Tenerife early on Sunday.
“We understand that the two Irish passengers are currently well. Public health protocols will be followed once the ship has docked with regard to certification and assessment of the health of passengers.
“This will be overseen by the ECDC and the Spanish authorities,” the spokesperson said.
Repatriation plans have been put in place by the Irish government to transfer the two Irish passengers directly from Tenerife to Ireland upon disembarkation, contingent on their health status.
On arrival in Ireland, they will be safely transferred to a HSE facility, the department said. The two passengers will need to quarantine for a period of time, in line with ECDC guidance and will be actively monitored during this time.
“If they become symptomatic, they will be assessed and treated as appropriate,” the department said.
Any passenger that becomes symptomatic and needs medical evacuation in Tenerife will have use of a Medevac aircraft, organised by the EU’s emergency response coordination centre.
“In the event that one or both of the Irish passengers becomes symptomatic before disembarkation, they will be medically evacuated on this aircraft,” the spokesperson said.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said on Thursday that they would be medically assessed when the ship reaches Tenerife. She said plans were still being worked out at that stage on how the passengers would return home.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been engaging with the HSE to see what measures will need to be taken when the Irish passengers aboard the MV Hondius come home.
The Minister’s office have been contacted for comment.
Three passengers from the MV Hondius – a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman – have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
The Andes strain of hantavirus, the only strain that can transmit from person to person, has been confirmed among those who have tested positive.
I arrived in #Spain, where I will join senior government officials in a mission to Tenerife to oversee safe disembarkation of the passengers, crew members and health experts from MV Hondius cruise ship.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 9, 2026
Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski and… pic.twitter.com/W4pI9dlQHg
The outbreak has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina, which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has arrived in Spain, where he will meet prime minister Pedro Sanchez before overseeing the disembarkation of the cruise ship in the Canary Islands.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will meet Sanchez at 2pm Irish time before accompanying health and interior ministers to Tenerife.
In a post on X, the WHO chief confirmed he had arrived in the country and stressed that “at this stage, there are no additional people on board showing symptoms of hantavirus”.
The Dutch-flagged vessel, which has around 150 people on board, is expected to arrive at Tenerife between 2am and 4am tomorrow. Special flights will then take passengers to their home countries.
“Neither the luggage nor the body of the deceased person will be disembarked in the Canary Islands – they will remain on board with part of the crew,” Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez said, adding that the ship would continue on its way to the Netherlands.
The WHO has stressed that the hantavirus outbreak poses a minimal risk to the general public.
“This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who’s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,” spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters yesterday.
A picture was emerging from MV Hondius where “even those who have been sharing cabins don’t seem to be both infected in some cases”, when one has fallen sick, he added.
“The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person,” he said.
The WHO said there were six confirmed out of eight suspected cases of the virus so far. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship.
A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO confirmed.
The passenger – the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak – had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on 25 April, but was removed before take-off.
She died the following day in a hospital in Johannesburg.
Spanish authorities said a woman on that flight was being tested for hantavirus, having developed symptoms at home in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital, said health secretary Javier Padilla.
“This is a pretty unlikely case,” he told reporters: someone “two rows behind the person who died with hantavirus”.
Spanish interior ministry sources said a South African woman who was also on the flight “is currently asymptomatic in South Africa after staying in Barcelona for a week before returning to her country”.
Two Singapore residents who had been on the ship have also tested negative for the disease, but the city’s state authorities said they would remain in quarantine.
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on 1 April for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.
Three suspected cases, including two crew members who later tested positive, were evacuated from Cape Verde to the Netherlands.
The third person tested negative, German authorities said yesterday, but would remain under observation.
Provincial health official Juan Petrina said there was an “almost zero chance” the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors.
YouTuber Kasem Ibn Hattuta, who is travelling on the Hondius, said passengers were reassured that doctors had joined the ship.
“We finally left Cape Verde which was a relief for everyone on board, specially knowing that our sick colleagues are finally getting the medical care they need,” he said in a statement.
Everyone was keeping in high spirits, he added: “People are smiling and taking the situation calmly.”
People were wearing masks indoors and keeping their distance from others, he said.
The US said Friday it was arranging an evacuation fight for Americans on the ship, who would then be taken to a quarantine facility in Nebraska.
Spanish authorities have said the ship will anchor off Tenerife and will not be allowed to dock.
Passengers will be transferred to shore on a smaller vessel then by bus to the airport.
The evacuation must happen between tomorrow and Monday due to likely adverse weather conditions afterwards, the Canarian regional government said.
With reporting from © AFP 2026
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