One evacuated passenger tests positive for hantavirus, another develops symptoms on flight home

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Updated - May 11, 2026 12:35 pm IST - Tenerife (Spain) Passengers leave a plane at Manchester Airport, after being repatriated to the United Kingdom from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by hantavirus, on May 10, 2026,in Manchester, England.. | Photo Credit: AP Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home aboard military and government planes after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, with one American testing positive and a French traveller developing symptoms for the pathogen aboard their separate aircraft. One of the 17 American passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, U.S. health officials said late on Sunday (May 10, 2026). Earlier, one of the five French passengers developed symptoms on their flight home, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested. Passengers were evacuated off the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who were then on the Hondius had shown symptoms of the virus. The aircraft carrying the Americans was due to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early on Monday (May 11). The Americans would first be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus. The medical school also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients. “One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine hospital that will help care for the passengers. From the ship, all of the passengers were escorted to shore by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks. Spanish passengers were the first to leave, flown to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. Hours later, a plane that evacuated French passengers landed in Paris, where it was met by emergency vehicles. The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was expected to last until Monday (May 11). Japan's Foreign Ministry said a Japanese national arrived in Britain on a chartered flight arranged by the British Government and will be under health monitoring by British authorities for up to 45 days. Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier are infected with hantavirus. HO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak. “We have been repeating the same answer many times," he said. "This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn't be scared, and they shouldn't panic.” Even so, those disembarking and workers at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation process, including hazardous-materials suits, face masks and respirators. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed passengers on the tarmac donning similar suits and being sprayed with disinfectant. Passengers were relieved to be on their way home, another WHO official said. “It's been great seeing all the buses coming out and people really happy to be on land again and being repatriated,” said Diana Rojas Alvarez, the WHO health operations lead, who is on Tenerife. Authorities have said the disembarking passengers and crew members will be checked for symptoms and will be forbidd

One evacuated passenger tests positive for hantavirus, another develops symptoms on flight home

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One evacuated passenger tests positive for hantavirus, another develops symptoms on flight home

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