Amsterdam, 11 May 2026 (dpa/MIA) - Passengers from the Hondius cruise ship were beginning quarantines in their home countries Monday after being evacuated on special flights in response to the deadly outbreak of hantavirus on board.

Four German passengers have been transferred back to Germany where they arrived at Frankfurt University Hospital, a spokesman confirmed Monday morning.

There, the passengers were to undergo further examination and observation before being moved to their respective home states to quarantine for 45 days.

The Hondius entered the port of Granadilla on Tenerife on Sunday, carrying a total of 140 to 150 passengers, crew members and accompanying experts from 23 countries.

Three passengers of the Dutch-operated ship died amid the outbreak: an elderly Dutch couple and a German woman.

The World Health Organization suspects that the chain of infection originated with the Dutch couple, who may have caught the Andes variant of the virus in Argentina before boarding the ship.

Like all hantaviruses, it is usually transmitted by rodents, but the Andes virus is the only hantavirus that can also be transmitted from person to person.

There have been only a few recorded outbreaks in South America over the past few decades, all of which subsided quickly. 

Experts see no risk of the pathogen spreading widely, unlike the coronavirus pandemic. Lars Schaade, director of Germany's Robert Koch Institute told broadcaster ZDF on Sunday: "This is a completely different virus, and the danger is in no way comparable."

Countries have now evacuated their nationals from the ship, with a plane landing at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands on Sunday carrying 26 passengers and crew members.

Specialists were waiting at Eindhoven Airport to medically examine the evacuees. Dutch passengers were directly taken home, to spend six weeks in home quarantine.

Several ambulances left the military section of Eindhoven Airport late on Sunday, carrying the four German nationals back to Germany.

Alongside the German and Dutch passengers, Belgian and Greek nationals were also on board the Eindhoven flight. All were asymptomatic before departure, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.

Cases reported in France and United States

In France, Health Minister Stéphanie Rist confirmed Monday that a woman tested positive for the virus after being evacuated from the ship.

Rist said the woman’s condition had deteriorated overnight.

Tests on the other four French evacuees have so far returned negative, although further testing is planned, she said. All five are being kept in isolation in specially equipped hospital rooms.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, two of the 17 US nationals repatriated on government-organized flights travelled in a dedicated biocontainment unit. 

One passenger tested "mildly" positive for hantavirus, while another was showing "mild" symptoms, the agency said in a post on X.

Another German national residing in the United Kingdom was taken back to the UK to quarantine alongside British citizens. 

Captain pays tribute

The captain of the Hondius paid tribute Monday to the crew and passengers for their "patience, discipline and friendliness" during the ordeal in the Atlantic.

"These past few weeks have been extremely challenging to us all," Jan Dobrogowski said in a video message published by the cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

"I've witnessed your caring, your unity and your quiet strength," Dobrogowski said in reference to all aboard. The experience showed that people can rely on each other even where aid is not immediately available, he said.

The Hondius is due to leave Tenerife for Rotterdam Monday evening.

The German woman who died on board is not to be removed from the ship until it arrives in the port, where it is due to be disinfected.