Stricken Rat Plague Ship Heads To Spanish Waters

May 7, 2026 Madrid Metropolitan

Spain’s Health Minister, Monica Garcia Gomez has confirmed that the stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius will dock “within three days” on the Spanish island of Tenerife, despite being hit with the hantavirus outbreak.

This comes after three people suspected to have been infected with the deadly virus and were evacuated from MV Hondius.

The World Health Organisation had confirmed that the three passengers have been brought to the Netherlands to receive treatment.

Speaking in Madrid, the ministter stressed that authorities have ‘legal tools to protect public health’, though she stopped short of confirming whether isolation measures would be mandatory. She said all decisions would be guided strictly by health and safety criteria.

‘When they arrive, we will conduct an assessment and ask for their consent to carry out these evaluations, day by day, with international experts, for the duration of that quarantine,’ the minister said.

Garcia Gomez revealed that after they arrive in Tenerife, all non Spanish passengers will be returned to their own countries, while the 14 Spanish nationals ( including one crew member) aboard will be taken to the Gómez Ulla Military Hospital in Madrid.

She also said that all passengers remaining on the ship are showing no symptoms, and all asymptomatic non Spanish passengers will not have to quarantine in Spain upon arrival. The minister also said that quarantine times for Spanish passengers will depend on establishing a day zero of contact as the hantavirus has an incubation period of 45 days.

The ship itself is due to set sail for Tenerife with the remaining passengers, including two Irish people and its crew. Its passengers and crew have been in isolation after Cape Verde authorities barred the ship from docking.

The head of the archipelago’s regional government, Fernando Clavijo, has said the vessel’s owner requested to dock on Saturday in Tenerife, which is the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.

“The shipowner – and this is a request that is currently being considered – has asked to dock on the 9th, to berth in a port in Tenerife”, Clavijo said, while adding that he had been informed of the request by the port authority.

The WHO have confirmed that eight cases of hantavirus were identified, with three confirmed by laboratory testing. They said the strain was detected in the outbreak on MV Hondius is the Andes virus.

It was also confirmed that human-to-human transmission was also reported in previous outbreaks one one particular hantavirus, called Andes virus, which also circulates in South America.

The WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has insisted that the overall health risk to the public remains low. He said he did not believe that the hantavirus outbreak does hold similarities with the start of the Covid pandemic.

However, when asked if the WHO viewed the hantavirus situation as similar to the emergency which brought out the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Dr Tedros said: “No, I don’t think so”.

The MV Hondius, left Ushuaia in Argentina on 1 April with 88 passengers and 59 crew of 23 nationalities, remains under close international monitoring as Spain prepares for its arrival and the complex evacuation operation ahead.

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