Australia to repatriate passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

May 11, 2026 9:19 AM

Australia to repatriate passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

The Australian government said on Monday it would repatriate its citizens from a Dutch-flagged luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly strain of hantavirus, with the passengers to be quarantined after they arrive in the country. Spain and France have evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which has anchored near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, officials said, with flights to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States slated to have left by Sunday nigh...

Hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads to Spain after three people evacuated

May 7, 2026 10:52 AM

Hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads to Spain after three people evacuated

A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned since Sunday off the coast of Cape Verde left for Spain on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, after three people, two of them seriously ill, were evacuated. The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to dock in Spain's Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease. Once in Tener...

Hantavirus-hit cruise ship to head to Spain after permission granted to dock in Canary Islands

May 6, 2026 10:18 AM

Hantavirus-hit cruise ship to head to Spain after permission granted to dock in Canary Islands

A luxury cruise ship that has been hit by an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus was preparing to travel from Cape Verde towards Europe on Wednesday after the Spanish government gave permission for it to dock in the Canary Islands. The Spanish Health Ministry said it had been asked by the World Health Organisation and the European Union to take the MV Hondius "in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles". It said it would also on Tuesday evening receive a medical flight carr...