British passengers on a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak will be transferred to the hospital used as the UK’s quarantine site at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Press Association understands MV Hondius passengers will be transferred to an isolation facility at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside, after being repatriated to the UK from Tenerife.
The hospital was used to house British citizens returning from Wuhan, China, in January 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic.
Some 22 British passengers and crew on board the MV Hondius ship are expected to reach Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, on Sunday.
Officials from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Foreign Office will greet the MV Hondius when it docks, 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.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that there were currently no symptomatic passengers on board the ship.
Emergency services in the north west of England said they expected the passengers to be kept in a “managed setting” for up to 72 hours.
Public health specialists will then assess whether they can isolate at home or at another suitable location based on their living arrangements.
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.
A joint statement from NHS England North West, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, Merseyside Police, North West Ambulance Service, and Wirral Council said: “Organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside are working closely with colleagues from the UK Health Security Agency and other government bodies to support the repatriation of passengers from MV Hondius.
“In line with advice from the UK Health Security Agency, on arrival they will be taken to a managed setting for clinical assessment and testing. We expect this initial stay to be up to 72 hours.
“Following this, public health specialists will assess whether they can isolate at home or at another suitable location, based on their living arrangements.
“The risk to the general population remains very low.”
The WHO 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.
The UN agency has sought to reassure “worried” Tenerife residents that they will not encounter passengers of the hantavirus-hit cruise ship set to dock on their island.
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,
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 9, 2026
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
He 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.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 9, 2026
Meanwhile, I am in direct communication with captain Jan Dobrogowski and… pic.twitter.com/W4pI9dlQHg
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.
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