Hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius liner: the ship docked in the Canary Islands, passengers are evacuated in groups wearing protective suits and masks • Meduza • RIMA — Russian Independent Media Archive
Hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius liner: the ship docked in the Canary Islands, passengers are evacuated in groups wearing protective suits and masks
Point by point - what happened and what the authorities are doing to prevent the spread of the disease
Hayden Smith / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA A medical worker in a protective suit disembarks American Honda passengers from a plane arriving from Tenerife. Omaha, USA, May 11, 2026
The cruise ship Hondius, where the hantavirus outbreak occurred, has been in the port of Tenerife since May 10. Passengers and crew members are evacuated from there.
Passengers were divided into groups depending on their citizenship. The evacuation will last several days - the last plane carrying Australian citizens will leave on Monday.
Passengers disembark the ship wearing protective suits and masks. In some cases, they are sprayed with a disinfectant solution from a fire hose before boarding the plane.
Upon arrival at home, everyone will be subject to strict quarantine. The incubation period of the virus is up to nine weeks. US authorities said they would monitor their citizens for 42 days.
Over the past 24 hours, two American evacuees and one French citizen have developed symptoms. On May 11, WHO announced that a total of seven laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease had been recorded. The presence of hantavirus is suspected in two more people (one of them died).
The outbreak on the ship is caused by the rare Andes strain. This is the only type of hantavirus known to be transmitted from person to person. At the same time, the WHO insists: this is not a new Covid-19, the overall risk to public health remains low.
A total of three people have died since the virus outbreak began.