Spain readies evacuations as hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads for Canary Islands

The vessel is expected to reach the island of Tenerife on Saturday or Sunday, with arrival anticipated on May 9 or May 10, 2026.

South African authorities were tracing contacts of any passengers who previously disembarked, focusing on an April 25 flight from St Helena to Johannesburg, the day after disembarkations.

UK health authorities said a third British national is suspected of having hantavirus on Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory where the ship stopped in April.

Two other British nationals who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus, with one hospitalised in the Netherlands and the other in South Africa.

The World Health Organization said the risk to the wider public from the hantavirus outbreak is low.

The British government said it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British citizens still on the MV Hondius.

The United States agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to repatriate its 17 citizens aboard the ship.

Spanish authorities prepared to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands.

The cruise ship operator said none of the remaining passengers or crew on board was currently symptomatic.

Spain's head of emergency services, Virginia Barcones, said passengers and crew will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area in Tenerife.

South Africa focused on tracing the contacts of passengers who previously got off the ship, with attention to an April 25 flight from St Helena to Johannesburg, the day after disembarkations.

More than two dozen people from at least 12 countries left the ship without contact tracing, according to the ship's operator and Dutch officials.