British passengers evacuated from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak have arrived in the UK after being repatriated from Tenerife.
A chartered Titan Airways flight transported the passengers from the Canary Islands, landing at Manchester Airport on Sunday evening.
The 20 British passengers, who were tested for hantavirus before getting on the flight, will be taken to isolate at the UK’s initial Covid quarantine site at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside.
The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning, with Spanish authorities beginning evacuations of the cruise ship by nationality and ferrying passengers to a port by small boat.
While they were being bussed from the port at Granadilla de Abona to Tenerife South Airport, some British passengers, clad in blue PPE, waved and gave thumbs up as they passed watching media.
In a post on X, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Thank you to all those who worked around the clock to get passengers from MV Hondius back to the UK by special flight this evening with public health protections in place.
“The UK has worked with Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands and the WHO to coordinate safe returns.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said its goal was to finish the ship’s evacuation, with the exception of 30 crew members remaining on board, by 7pm on Monday.
Passengers were told to leave their luggage on the ship and were only allowed to take a small bag with essential items such as their phone and passport.
Spanish authorities said on Sunday that no passengers on the ship were showing symptoms of the virus, with 14 Spanish nationals who formed the first group to be taken off the vessel being flown to a hospital in Madrid.
However, one of five French passengers showed symptoms during their repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Sunday.
In a post on X, he said all five were “immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice” where they will receive medical care and undergo further testing.
The Spanish health ministry said on Sunday that 94 people of 19 nationalities had been taken off the cruise ship.
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Tenerife that the outbreak was “not another Covid and the risk to the public is low”.
After returning to the UK, passengers will be housed and provided with clothes at an accommodation block on the Arrowe Park site away from the hospital’s public areas to receive clinical assessment and testing as a precautionary measure.
The hospital, used as the UK’s initial Covid quarantine site, had blue covered fences erected around accommodation blocks on Sunday morning.
Emergency services in the North West said they expected the passengers to be kept in the “managed setting” for up to 72 hours.
They added that the NHS trust and hospital is “operating as normal” with no risk to patients, visitors or staff and “people should continue to come forward for care as usual”.
After their isolation, public health specialists will assess whether passengers 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.
Some 30 crew members and a nurse from the Netherlands, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it will undergo disinfection, the WHO said.
The WHO said on Saturday there had been six confirmed hantavirus cases linked to MV Hondius and four patients were in hospital.
It added that eight cases, including three deaths, had been reported – with one previous suspected case being reclassified after testing negative for hantavirus.
The UKHSA said three British nationals are included in the eight cases – two involve confirmed hantavirus and another is suspected.
The two confirmed British cases are in hospital in South Africa and the Netherlands, while the third British national with a suspected case is being supported on the British overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha where they live.
Six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and an Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade were parachuted onto the South Atlantic island, while oxygen supplies and medical aid were also dropped on Tristan da Cunha, which is normally only accessible by boat.
The Ministry of Defence said it was the first time medical personnel had been parachuted in to provide humanitarian support.
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