French Cruise Passenger Tests Positive for Hantavirus After Return

A French woman who was aboard a cruise ship struck by a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus and her health is worsening, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said.

The woman was one of five French nationals on the vessel who have since returned to Paris.

The other four passengers tested negative, though they will be tested again, Ms Rist told France Inter radio. She added that French authorities have so far identified 22 contact cases.

In the United States, health officials said one of 17 American citizens being repatriated from the cruise ship had also tested positive for the virus.

Both infected passengers were travelling in the plane’s biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution,” the department said.

The US passengers, evacuated from the Spanish Canary Islands where the ship had stopped, are due to be taken to a specialised centre in the rural state of Nebraska. The person showing mild symptoms will be transferred to a second centre.

On arrival, “each person will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition”.

Watch: US citizens from hantavirus-hit cruise ship evacuated from Canary Islands

Eight people who are no longer on board the MV Hondius have become ill, according to a World Health Organization tally released on Friday. Of those, six have been confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three people have died: a Dutch couple and a German national.

Officials said Ireland, Spain, ⁠France and the US have all evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which remains anchored ‌near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands.

Read more: Irish passengers arrive in Baldonnel after evacuation

The WHO has advised a 42-day quarantine for all passengers, while experts have urged calm, noting that a public still marked by the Covid-19 pandemic faces a virus that is far less contagious and poses limited risk.

The virus, which is usually spread by rodents but can in rare cases pass from person to person through close contact, was first identified on 2 May in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a British man who became ill 21 days after another passenger had died.

Once the outbreak came to light, the vessel sailed for Spain last Wednesday from waters off Cape Verde, after travelling from the southern tip of Argentina across the South Atlantic to the Cape ‌Verde islands.

Australia to charter flight to evacuate citizens from Tenerife

Australia, meanwhile, will charter a ⁠flight to bring home its citizens from the cruise ship, with passengers expected to enter quarantine on arrival, the government said.

Environment Minister Murray Watt said four Australians, one resident of Tenerife and one resident of New Zealand would be repatriated.

“This is being done via an ‌Australian government-supported flight, and we expect ⁠those people to return to Australia soon,” Mr Watt told reporters in Canberra.

“Quarantine arrangements are being finalised as we speak with the states and territories.”

It was not immediately clear whether any of those being flown to Australia had fallen ill or were showing symptoms of the virus. The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for further details.

New Zealand’s Director ‌of Public Health Corina Grey said in a statement today that the country’s health services had the capacity to support any quarantine measures if required.

Spain’s health minister said the final two evacuation flights, one from Australia and another from the Netherlands, would depart this afternoon local time.