UK passengers on MV Hondius to be repatriated, isolated after hantavirus outbreak

British passengers and crew from the MV Hondius will be moved into hospital isolation in northwest England after the ship anchors off Tenerife early on Sunday, in a containment response built to keep exposure tightly managed while health officials assess the true level of risk. The 22 British nationals on board are due to fly back to Britain on a dedicated repatriation flight arranged by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, with public health and infectious disease specialists from the UK Health Security Agency and the National Health Service on the aircraft. Their initial stay in hospital is expected to last up to 72 hours before officials decide whether they can continue isolating at home or in another setting. UK authorities said all British passengers and crew will then be asked to isolate for 45 days, with follow-up and testing as required.

The move comes after the World Health Organization said the outbreak aboard the expedition cruise ship had reached eight reported cases and three deaths as of 8 May, with six laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections. WHO said all identified confirmed cases were Andes virus, and that illness onset ran from 6 to 28 April, with symptoms including fever, gastrointestinal illness, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock. The ship was carrying 147 passengers and crew.

UK Health Security Agency officials said two British nationals had confirmed hantavirus and a third suspected British case was linked to Tristan da Cunha. Seven British nationals had disembarked at St Helena on 24 April; two had already returned to the UK independently and were self-isolating at home, four remained in St Helena, and one had been traced outside the UK. UKHSA also said British nationals still aboard were not currently reporting symptoms.

The repatriation has drawn in multiple governments and public health agencies. Spain said earlier that the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and other countries were sending aircraft to evacuate their citizens. WHO said it was developing operational guidance for the safe disembarkation and onward travel of passengers and crew. In Tenerife, port workers protested the planned docking of the vessel at Granadilla de Abona, underscoring local anxiety even as officials repeated that the wider public risk remained very low.

The Hondius, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions and delivered in May 2019, has become the latest test of how quickly authorities can separate an onboard outbreak from the broader community. The plan to use Arrowe Park Hospital near Liverpool echoes the early Covid-era quarantine response and shows how public health systems now default to controlled isolation, rapid testing and contact tracing when a maritime outbreak crosses into repatriation.