American Repatriation Flight Adds Two Hanta Virus Update Cases
An American citizen on a repatriation flight began showing symptoms of hantavirus on May 10, 2026, and another American tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus after leaving the cruise ship. The two passengers were travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution, and all five passengers were placed in strict isolation until further notice.
MV Hondius Evacuations
The latest development came after passengers began disembarking on Sunday morning when the MV Hondius docked in Spain's Canary Islands. Spanish nationals left first and were taken to Madrid, where they were taken to a military hospital. French and British passengers were also evacuated, while passengers and crew members had no contact with the local population on Tenerife before their flights.
There have been at least nine confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the ship, and three fatalities have been linked to it. The fatalities include a Dutch couple and a German woman. The ship was carrying nearly 150 people from more than 15 countries, including 17 Americans.
Sébastien Lecornu and UNMC
Sébastien Lecornu said a French passenger began showing symptoms during a repatriation flight on Sunday afternoon, and said the five passengers were immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice. The French passenger joined the American cases as health officials shifted the response from shipboard containment to air evacuation and testing.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center said the American passenger who tested positive was not experiencing symptoms. The Department of Health and Human Services said the passenger had "tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus" while travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.
Rotterdam Disinfection
The ship's body of a passenger who died on board will remain on the ship, and the vessel will be disinfected once it arrives in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Earlier this week, the MV Hondius set sail from Cape Verde to Granadilla after Spain agreed to take the ship, and the operation in Tenerife was supervised by Spain's health and interior ministers and WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Passengers linked to the outbreak have already moved through isolation, testing, and evacuation, and the next step is the ship's disinfection in Rotterdam. The repatriation flights now carry the immediate public-health concern: whether the symptoms and the mild PCR-positive result remain isolated cases or extend further among the passengers already separated from the cruise ship.
