The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sought to reassure “worried” Tenerife residents they will not encounter passengers of a hantavirus-hit cruise ship set to dock on the island.
The UN agency said there had been six confirmed hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius ship and that four patients were currently in hospital.
It added that a total of eight cases, including three deaths, had been reported – with one suspected case being reclassified after testing negative for hantavirus.
Some 22 British passengers and crew on board the ship are expected to reach Tenerife on Sunday, with the hope of flying them back to the UK the same day.
Officials from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Foreign Office will greet the MV Hondius when it docks in Spain’s Canary Islands, with Britons on board tested for hantavirus before they disembark.
If people test negative and are not displaying symptoms, they will be taken straight to a dedicated repatriation flight staffed by medical professionals.
Britons returning to the UK will stay in self-isolation for 45 days and will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes.
The WHO said on Saturday that there were currently no symptomatic passengers on board the ship.
In a letter addressed to the people of Tenerife, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he knew residents were “worried”.
To the people of Tenerife,
My name is Tedros, and I serve as the Director-General of the @WHO, the @UN agency responsible for global public health. It is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is… pic.twitter.com/lx05ji4a79
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 9, 2026
The Ethiopian public health official said the virus was “serious” but the outbreak was “not another Covid” and the “current public health risk from hantavirus remains low”.
He added: “Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: 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. Your families will not encounter them.
“Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home.
“Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety.”
I arrived in #Spain, where 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.
Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski and… pic.twitter.com/W4pI9dlQHg
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 9, 2026
Two British men are currently being treated for hantavirus in the Netherlands and Johannesburg, South Africa, while a third British man with symptoms is being cared for on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha.
In total, the Foreign Office said 30 passengers and crew from the MV Hondius are British, with 22 still on board the vessel.
The outbreak has been connected to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina which two of the passengers went on before boarding the ship.
