The Spanish Ministry of Health announced Tuesday evening that the MV Hondius, the cruise ship hit by a possible outbreak of hantavirus, will be welcomed within “three to four days” in the Canary Islands. According to him, the WHO considers that this is the “nearest place with the necessary capacities” for the care of passengers. Three sick people will first be evacuated to Cape Verde.

Published on: 05/05/2026 - 23:31Modified on: 06/05/2026 - 00:04

Soon the end of the nightmare for the passengers of the cruise ship hit by a possible outbreak of hantavirus? After the evacuation of patients in Cape Verde, Spain will welcome the MV Hondius within "three to four days" in the Canary Islands, the Spanish Ministry of Health announced Tuesday evening, May 5, specifying that "the precise port (of arrival) has not yet been defined".

“Once there, the crew and passengers will be duly examined, taken care of and transferred to their respective countries,” the ministry continued in a press release, according to which care and transfers “will be carried out in special spaces and means of transport, set up ad hoc for this situation, avoiding any contact with the local population”.

According to the Spanish ministry, the World Health Organization (WHO) "explained that Cape Verde was not able to carry out this operation" and that the Canary Islands were "the closest place with the necessary capacity".

“The government has also accepted an official request from the government of the Netherlands to accommodate the doctor from the MV Hondius, who is in serious condition and who will be transported to the Canaries in a medical plane today,” he also specified.

Also read: What is hantavirus, the virus responsible for a possible cluster on a cruise ship?

The regional president of the Canaries concerned

Earlier Tuesday, the ministry assured that "no decision" would be taken on the docking of the cruise ship hit by a possible hantavirus outbreak until "the epidemiological data" had been analyzed, shortly after the WHO had affirmed that the central government in Madrid had agreed to receive the liner in the Canaries.

“Everything is ready for treatment, for evaluation and, if necessary, for disinfection, if the WHO requests it,” government spokesperson Elma Saiz declared at the end of the Council of Ministers.

From Brussels, where he is traveling, the regional president of the Canaries, Fernando Clavijo, for his part, estimated that the cruise ship should be "taken care of where it is", in Cape Verde, in the Atlantic, or be redirected to "the Netherlands" because "it flies the Dutch flag".

“It’s a matter that worries us a lot,” he told the press.

Evacuations in Cape Verde

Three sick people on board the cruise ship immobilized in the Atlantic will first be evacuated to Cape Verde.

A Dutch couple and a German woman who traveled on board the MV Hondius have already died, according to the WHO. The ship was connecting Ushuaïa, Argentina, to the Cape Verde archipelago, off the West African coast.

The ship has been anchored since Sunday near the port of Praia, the Cape Verdean capital, with 88 passengers and 59 crew members of 23 nationalities.

The three suspected cases still on board will be able to be disembarked at the port of Praia in the coming hours, before being taken by ambulance to the airport, from where they will be evacuated, Ann Lindstrand, WHO representative in Cape Verde, announced Tuesday to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to her, these are “two sick crew members with symptoms” – but whose condition is “stable” and who do not need to be hospitalized – and a person who was in “close contact” with a sick person and “developed a slight fever”. The WHO had indicated that the two crew members were of British and Dutch nationality.

The Dutch cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions, which indicated during the day that "no new symptomatic cases" had been identified on board, for its part announced that the two patients "currently requiring emergency medical care" as well as "the person close to the passenger who died on May 2" will be evacuated to the Netherlands, on an unspecified date.

With AFP

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