Passengers start leaving hantavirus ship, French evacuee shows signs of illness on flight back to France

Passengers wearing blue protective suits board a military bus after being evacuated from the Dutch-flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius. Photo / AFP

More than 90 of nearly 150 people on a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will have been evacuated from the Canary Islands by the end of Sunday (Monday morning NZT), Spanish authorities said.

Passengers have already been removed from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius and are returning to their countries after the vessel arrived at the island of Tenerife early on Sunday.

British, Turkish, Irish and US citizens are scheduled to leave, with French and Spanish passengers already flown from the island.

A passenger from New Zealand will be among the last to be removed and repatriated.

Once the final evacuations are complete, around 30 crew will remain on board to take the MV Hondius to the Netherlands.

One of five French people flown back to France on Sunday is showing symptoms of the illness, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said.

Lecornu posted on X: “One of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane. 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.”

Spanish nationals were the first to leave the vessel in groups of five. They boarded a military aircraft back to Madrid to face quarantine.

France, Germany, Ireland, the US, UK and the Netherlands have chartered special flights to evacuate their citizens.

Reuters quoted Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia as saying that Australasian passengers would be the last to leave the Hondius because their flight plans were the most complicated.

Speaking to reporters at the port, Garcia said: “The final flight of the operation is departing from Australia ... It is the most complex flight and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon.”

The flight would pick up six people from Australia, New Zealand and other Asian countries.

- AFP