One evacuated passenger tests positive for hantavirus, another develops symptoms on flight

By AP
Today, 7:33 am
A Spanish passenger is sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands, Spain,, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home aboard military and government planes yesterday after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, with one American testing positive and a French traveler developing symptoms for the pathogen aboard their separate aircraft.

One of the 17 American passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, US health officials said late Sunday.

Earlier, one of the five French passengers developed symptoms on their flight home, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu says in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested.

Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who were then on the Hondius had shown symptoms of the virus.

The aircraft carrying the Americans is due to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early today.

The Americans will first be taken to the University of Nebraska, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.

Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier are infected with hantavirus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterates that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak.

“We have been repeating the same answer many times,” he says. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”