Cruise ship with deadly hantavirus to evacuate passengers near Spain

Plans are in place to evacuate passengers from multiple countries aboard the Tenerife, Spain-bound cruise ship stricken by a deadly hantavirus outbreak. Americans aboard the MV Hondius will make their way to quarantine in Nebraska.

The ship is set to arrive at the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, early in the morning on May 10.

After the ship docks, a small boat will bring the passengers in groups to the dock for medical screening, according to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's acting director of epidemic and pandemic management.

"If there's anybody that develops symptoms, anybody that has symptoms, they will immediately go to a medical evacuation plane and be taken to the Netherlands for care," Van Kerkhove said during the WHO briefing on May 9. "For those who are healthy, those who are doing well, they will go to individual planes that are being organized by countries. Those planes will take those individuals back to home countries."

Local authorities have said the evacuation must take place between Sunday midday local time and around the same time Monday before conditions at sea are expected to become stormier for the rest of the month.

The WHO said May 8 that eight people had fallen ill, including three who died − a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of these people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases, the WHO has said.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman who was tested for hantavirus after taking the same flight as a patient who died from the disease and displaying symptoms consistent with an infection has tested negative, Spain's health ministry said May 9. She will be tested again as a precautionary measure, the ministry added.

Flights home for Americans and other countries amid hantavirus

Spanish citizens will disembark first, with the order of evacuation of the remaining groups of citizens to be determined by health authorities. Spain's interior minister said May 9 that planes will come from Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands as well as two from the European Union for any remaining European citizens.

The United States is arranging a repatriation flight for the Americans on board, the State Department announced.

All passengers as well as 17 crew members will be evacuated, but 30 crew will stay on board and travel on to the Netherlands, Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia said. Luggage and the body of a deceased passenger on the ship will remain on board and the ship will be fully disinfected on arrival, she added.

The United States and the United Kingdom have confirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were unable to send air transport, Spain's interior minister said.

Residents of multiple countries, including the United States, are being monitored after disembarking earlier from the Hondius. Three people have died in connection with the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.S. health officials are "actively monitoring and responding to a hantavirus outbreak" linked to the cruise ship. "At this time, the risk to the American public remains extremely low," the agency said.

The World Health Organization's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he will be in Tenerife to help oversee the ship’s disembarkation.

In a post to social media on May 9, the director-general shared he arrived in Spain.

"I will join senior government officials in a mission to Tenerife to oversee safe disembarkation of the passengers, crew members and health experts from MV Hondius cruise ship," he wrote. "Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski and @WHO colleague on board Dr Freddy Banza-Mutoka, who told me that, at this stage, there are no additional people on board showing symptoms of #hantavirus."

Where will American passengers go once back in the US?

Americans will be taken to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, where they will be transported to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, CDC officials said in an update late Friday.

"The U.S. government's top priority is the safe repatriation of American passengers," the release said.

Once the ship is docked in the Canary Islands, a team of epidemiologists and medical professionals sent by the CDC will "conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger and provide recommendations for the level of monitoring required," the release continued. "An additional CDC team will deploy to Offutt AFB to support public health assessment of returning passengers."

What to expect with the cruise passengers returning home

The WHO briefed member states with citizens on board the ship on May 9 about how to manage the process, advising active monitoring of passengers for a 42-day period from the last point of exposure.

“I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,” WHO chief Ghebreyesus wrote in a letter to the public published on X on May 9.

Ghebreyesus said he wanted to take the unusual step of sharing a statement to address people’s concerns.

“Passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries. You will not encounter them”, he added.

Which states are monitoring cruise passengers for hantavirus?

As USA TODAY previously reported, officials in several states have confirmed they are monitoring residents who recently traveled on board the MV Hondius for hantavirus symptoms. In New Jersey, officials are monitoring two people who weren't on the ship but may have been exposed. 

• Arizona: One state resident was recently a passenger on the ship, but is not symptomatic and is being monitored, Magda Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Health Services, said in an email to The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.
• California: Residents were recently on the ship with other passengers infected with hantavirus, though there is no indication that they are sick, Grant Boyken, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health, confirmed in an email to The Desert Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network.
• Georgia: Two residents who traveled on MV Hondius are "currently in good health and show no signs of infection," the Georgia Department of Public Health said in a statement to USA TODAY on May 6.
• New Jersey: Two people living in the state were potentially exposed to a person infected with hantavirus who departed from the MV Hondius. The residents were not passengers on the cruise ship; the potential exposure occurred during air travel. Neither person has any symptoms, the state's health department announced May 8.
• Texas: Two residents were passengers on the ship and returned to the United States before the outbreak was identified. They have not experienced any symptoms, the state's health department said in a statement.
• Virginia: One resident who returned home from the ship is in good health and is being monitored, Virginia Department of Health spokesperson Maria Reppas told USA TODAY on May 7.

CDC issues health alert

The CDC issued an alert to its Health Alert Network, or HAN, on May 8 − a step that infectious disease experts said should have been taken earlier − to "inform clinicians and health departments about a new cluster of hantavirus disease cases caused by infection with Andes virus." 

"Clinicians should be aware of the potential for imported cases, although the risk of broad spread to the United States is considered extremely unlikely at this time," the alert added. "As a precaution, this Health Advisory summarizes CDC’s recommendations for U.S. public health departments, clinical laboratories, and healthcare workers about hantavirus disease case identification, testing, and biosafety considerations in clinical laboratories."

In a media briefing May 7, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the Infectious Diseases Society of America's chief executive officer, said HAN is defined as the CDC's "primary method of sharing clear information about urgent public health incidents."

"The last HAN on that page is from April 2, 2026, so this to me, (is) not overstating. It is a travesty in terms of NIH response," she said.

“A lot of the things that you would like to see, we haven't seen, and to me, that's very concerning," Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine, said in the briefing. "The silence that we're seeing from our premier public health institution is really concerning to me."

This story has been updated with new information.

Contributing: Reuters; Eve Chen, Natalie Neysa Alund, Jeanine Santucci and Melina Khan, USA TODAY