Evacuees From Hantavirus-hit Cruise Ship Land In UK

A plane carrying 20 UK citizens evacuated from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak, has landed in Manchester, northwest England, on Sunday, television footage showed.

The flight arrived at the city’s airport from Tenerife, where the MV Hondius is currently moored. The British nationals are expected to be transferred to a hospital near Liverpool for medical tests and will remain in quarantine for up to 72 hours.

According to Spanish government information, 22 British nationals were earlier evacuated from the vessel, with 20 on board the special flight, Britain’s Press Association (PA) reported. The remaining two passengers were expected to travel to another destination.

UK authorities did not immediately confirm the details.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, in a post on X, commended efforts to repatriate the passengers, saying, “Thank you to all those who worked around the clock to get passengers from MV Hondius back to the UK by special flight this evening with public health protections in place.”

A spokesman for the National Health Service (NHS) had earlier said the evacuees would be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral upon arrival for testing.

The group is expected to remain under observation for an initial 72 hours, after which further isolation measures will be assessed.

Since the outbreak began, three passengers — a Dutch couple and a German woman — have died, while several others have fallen ill from the rare disease, which is typically spread through rodents.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Friday that six cases had been verified out of eight suspected infections.