Netherlands evacuates 26 Hondius passengers to Eindhoven, including eight Dutch
Eight Dutch passengers from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius flew from Tenerife to Eindhoven Airport on Sunday after being evacuated from the port of Granadilla de Abona.
The flight departed from Tenerife carrying about 26 people in total, including the eight Dutch passengers plus 18 other evacuees. Those additional passengers were German, Belgian, and Argentine nationals. The aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Eindhoven later the same day.
The Dutch passengers were brought off the ship earlier Sunday morning. They were transferred by small boats in protective clothing and face masks, then taken to shore in southern Tenerife.
At the port, Spanish health teams conducted medical checks and document verification before passengers were transported by bus to the airport. An emergency hospital was set up in the port area. Spanish authorities deployed 358 officers from the Guardia Civil national police force.
Dutch authorities arranged a chartered civilian flight specifically for repatriation to Eindhoven. After arrival in the Netherlands, Dutch passengers and crew will undergo blood tests and complete a medical questionnaire, according to the Dutch Ministry of Health.
They will then go home and remain in quarantine for six weeks, under the supervision of the local GGD health service. This follows advice from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which has marked the Andes hantavirus variant as a serious infectious disease that must be reported.
Three deaths have been linked to the outbreak, including a Dutch couple from Friesland and a 65-year-old German woman.
Separately from the Eindhoven flight, additional evacuation groups were also processed in Tenerife on Sunday. Spanish passengers were the first to be evacuated and flown to Madrid–Torrejón Airport for transfer to a military hospital in Madrid. French and Canadian passengers were also evacuated in subsequent groups.
The International Hantavirus Society said the Andes variant can spread “in the case of specific situations with long and close contact," but stressed there is no evidence of large-scale human-to-human transmission and no indication of a pandemic scenario.
