Hantavirus: UK to isolate cruise ship passengers in ex-Covid hospital – NHS officials

UK health authorities are gearing up to receive about 24 people from a virus-hit cruise ship, who will be isolated in a hospital once used for Covid patients, NHS officials said Saturday.

They are currently on board the Dutch ship, the MV Hondius, due to anchor off Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday.

Most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home to their home countries after weeks at sea, in a carefully prepared repatriation effort.

Among them are about 24 British passengers and crew, as well as two people from Ireland. None are currently showing any symptoms of hantavirus.

“In line with advice from the UK Health Security Agency, on arrival they will be taken to a managed setting for clinical assessment and testing,” NHS England North West and NHS Cheshire said.

The joint statement with Wirral council and local ambulance and police said the group would initially stay for 72 hours, and arrangements for their further isolation assessed.

An internal email shared with AFP confirmed the group of about 24 people would be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in northwestern Wirral. It was used to isolate people returning from Wuhan in China and the cruise ship Diamond Princess at the start of the 2020 Covid pandemic.

Since the start of the outbreak, three passengers from the ship — a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman — have died. Others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

The WHO said Friday it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship.

The MV Hondius is sailing from Cape Verde, where three infected people had already been evacuated earlier in the week.

It was expected to arrive in Tenerife between 0300 and 0500 GMT Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez said.

“We will be welcoming the guests on Sunday 10 May 2026 and they will all be screened for symptoms before they arrive on-site; nobody showing any symptoms will be transferred here,” said Janelle Holmes, chief executive for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, in her email to staff.

“The risk to the general population remains very low and the public can be reassured that established infection control measures will be put in place at every step of the journey,” she added.

Irish officials are also finalising plans to send a plane to repatriate two Irish nationals, radio and television station RTE said.

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