Passengers start to disembark cruise ship stricken by hantavirus

The first passengers have begun to disembark from a Dutch-flagged cruise ship that was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak after the vessel arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands early Sunday morning. 

Health officials said that so far, nobody left on board the ship was showing symptons of hantavirus. There have been at least nine confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the ship, including three fatalities: A Dutch couple and a German woman.

The MV Hondius, currently carrying nearly 150 people from more than 15 countries, including 17 Americans, had set sail earlier this week from Cape Verde to the port of Granadilla on Tenerife — the largest of the Canary Islands — after Spain agreed to take the ship.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, says that all passengers and a portion of the approximately 60 crew members will begin evacuating the ship Sunday using launch boats that carry a maximum of five to 10 people. 

According to the complex evacuation plan, Spanish passengers will be disembarking first, followed by a Netherlands-bound flight that will include Germans, Belgians, Greeks and part of the crew. Flights will then leave for Canada, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Ireland and the U.S. in sequence as planes are ready. The final flight will be to Australia, which has to send its own plane. That flight is set for Monday and will include some passengers from New Zealand and the Asian region. 

There are not expected to be any health screenings on land, officials said Sunday morning. Passengers will be moved from bus to plane and out of Tenerife — out of Spain — as quickly as possible.