Summary

  • US health authorities say 18 Americans from the MV Hondius cruise ship have returned to the US, with one person who has tested positive for hantavirus

  • A second American on the repatriation flight on Sunday also showed symptoms and has flown to Atlanta, US officials have said

  • Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen says there is a "strong plan" and "no-one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door onto the streets of Omaha"

  • Officials say the risk to the public is "very, very low"

  • More than 90 passengers of the MV Hondius ship, currently docked in Spain's Canary Islands, are being repatriated, with a French national also testing positive

  • Three passengers - a Dutch couple and a German woman - have died after travelling on the vessel. Two of them are confirmed to have had the virus

Live Reporting

Edited by Caitlin Wilson

  1. Canadian passengers could be isolated for up to 42 days, authorities say

    Among the passengers aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship were four Canadians, who returned to their home province of British Columbia on Sunday night.

    The four took a chartered flight from Tenerife, Spain, where the ship was docked, to Bagotville, Quebec and later Victoria, British Columbia. All are now self-isolating at a "pre-determined location" for a minimum of 21 days, Canadian officials said.

    That period could extend up to 42 days days if necessary due to the hantavirus' incubation period, said British Columbia's health officer Dr Bonnie Henry on Sunday.

    "At no point during their arrival or isolation period will they be in contact with the public," she said, adding their health will be monitored daily.

    Canada is treating its passengers like they have been exposed to the hantavirus out of precaution, authorities said, but none have shown symptoms.

    If one of them does test positive for the virus, Henry said there are "secure plans in place" to make sure the illness does not spread.

  2. French woman with hantavirus 'deteriorating', as more than 90 passengers repatriated on Sunday

    A person with protective gear stands on the deck of the cruise ship MV HondiusReuters

    The cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife

    People from all over the world had been aboard the MV Hondius - the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak - when it set sail from Argentina a month ago.

    Dutch and German nationals have died

    A dutch couple travelling on the ship have died, with the wife confirmed as having had hantavirus. A German passenger also died.

    French, US and British nationals among other cases

    A total of seven cases of hantavirus linked to the ship have been confirmed, including an American and a French national, authorities say. French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said a woman was isolating in Paris and her health was deteriorating, with 22 contacts traced.

    Two other British nationals with confirmed cases are currently being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

    Global evacuations

    Spain said on Sunday that more than 90 passengers would have been evacuated and flown home by the end of the day, leaving fewer than 60 passengers aboard the ship.

    Fourteen Spanish nationals flown from Tenerife to Madrid face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital in the capital. French and British nationals were also taken to Paris and Manchester respectively, with flights for Turkish, Irish and US citizens also scheduled.

    Twenty Britons are isolating at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside, after their chartered flight from Tenerife landed at Manchester Airport on Sunday.

  3. How worried should we be about hantavirus?

    The cruise ship MV Hondius docked at the port of Granadilla de Abona in SpainReuters

    The cruise ship MV Hondius

    Unlike diseases such as measles, which are highly contagious and spread easily, the Andes strain of hantavirus behind the outbreak is not that infectious.

    Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents, with people infected by breathing in air contaminated with virus particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva.

    Human-to-human spread is possible but the risk of infections globally remains low, says the World Health Organization.

    Experts have observed the Andes strain spreading between human patients in previous outbreaks, through very close contact, and health experts believe that some of the infections on board MV Hondius may have passed between people.

    Prof Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA has previously told the BBC that the risk to those not directly linked to the cruise is "extremely low indeed".

    Graphic showing how hantavirus can spread

  4. One US citizen testing positive for the virus

    People stand on the tarmac underneath a plane at an airportReuters

    The US charter flight disembarking at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska

    Out of the 17 US citizens evacuated from the cruise ship, one has tested positive for the virus and one is displaying "mild" symptoms, the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says in a post on X.

    The two travelled in biocontainment units to the Nebraska facility, out of "an abundance of caution", the HHS said. The US citizen with mild symptoms will be transported to a second location.

    The passenger who tested positive for the virus is not displaying any symptoms, reports CBS news, the BBC's US news partner.

  5. The state-of-the-art Nebraska facility receiving the cruise ship evacuees

    A bed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and a desk and workout bikeUniversity of Nebraska Medical Center

    The centre opened just months before the Covid-19 pandemic

    Seventeen US citizens and one British national who resides in the US arrived in Nebraska earlier, having been evacuated off the hantavirus-struck cruise ship.

    They are due to be screened at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the city of Omaha. It's a state-of-the-art facility and contains the only federally-funded quarantine unit in the US: the National Quarantine Unit (NQU).

    The 20-bed facility opened in November 2019, just months before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The rooms are fitted with negative air pressure systems designed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

    Dr Michael Wadman, director of the NQU, likened living in the facility to "a hotel room with delivery of food".

    "They can use their exercise devices in the room, we do daily symptom and monitoring as well as vital sign checks," he said.

  6. Health officials to give hantavirus update after US citizens evacuated

    At 09:00 CT (15:00 BST), we're expecting to hear an update from US health officials about US citizens who were evacuated from the cruise ship beset by the hantavirus outbreak.

    That press conference is being held in Omaha, Nebraska - the city where the passengers arrived earlier.

    University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) experts will be speaking alongside federal, state and local officials.

    We'll bring you all the key lines as they happen, and you'll be able to watch live at the top of the page.