Cruise ship hit by hantavirus arrives in Tenerife to evacuate passengers

The cruise ship at the centre of a deadly outbreak of hantavirus has arrived in Tenerife for the evacuation of those onboard.

The ship arrived in the Canary Islands in the early hours of Sunday morning carrying 146 people, after three people died of the virus and eight more became ill.

While nobody onboard the vessel has symptoms, passengers and crew have been confined to their cabins in the last few days to help halt the spread of the virus, which is only transmitted through very close contact.

They will each be screened for hantavirus, which can cause flu-like symptoms leading to respiratory arrest and death, in some cases.

The 19 passengers and three crew from the UK will be immediately flown from Tenerife to Merseyside for hospital quarantine at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral.

Those from elsewhere will take separate flights to their home countries, after reassurance from the Spanish government and the World Health Organization (WHO) that they will not come into contact with people in Tenerife.

They are being asked to isolate for 42 days from their point of potential exposure, which for most of the passengers will be many days ago.

Passengers and crew on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife. Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

The MV Hondius is anchored slightly offshore of the southern commercial port of Grenadilla, and passengers will be brought in groups of five to 10 to the dock by small boat.

This would only happen when planes were on the asphalt ready to receive them, the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said.

Flights to some countries were yet to be arranged, as authorities scrambled to get planes in place on Sunday.

Winds off the coast of the island were expected to pick up from Monday, meaning any people from countries where flights were not arranged may be stuck onboard.

Authorities have sought to make clear that the virus, though serious, would not result in another pandemic.

However, the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was asked at a press conference in Tenerife late on Saturday night whether allowing passengers to travel all over the world and relying on them to self-isolate with no oversight could cause further outbreaks.

“Based on our assessment, what you have said is not going to happen,” he told the media.