Hantavirus blast, Spain confirms another case between the evacuees

Since Tuesday, WHO has identified 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed, and three deaths, all among passengers of the tourist ship.

The latest case is among Spanish passengers quarantined at the Gómez Ulla Central Defence Hospital in Madrid, the Spanish Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

“Day, the patient was presented with light fever and slight respiratory symptoms; however, they are currently stable without apparent clinical deterioration”, the ministry confirmed in an X post.

The other 13 Spanish passengers have resulted in negative tests for hantavirus.

The United States announced on Monday, after evacuation from the ship, that a passenger is currently experiencing slight symptoms and another passenger resulted slightly positive with PCR for the Andes virus.

In a second test Tuesday, the American passenger resulted negative, the Spanish Health Ministry added.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defended on Tuesday the way his administration handled the explosion of hantavirus discovered on the MV Hondius tourist ship, which was forced to dock at the port of Granadilla at Tenerife.

Sanchez called the operation a <x0... successful” during a press conference in which he participated along with WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebresus.

The WHO chief thanked the Spanish leader “not only” for fulfilling Spain's “legal decisions under international law”, but also for “the exercise of his moral duty”. His moral duty to show solidarity with ship passengers.

WHO's leader highlighted the difficult situation for both passengers and the crew of the tourist ship, which had been stranded aboard the ship for days, and assured that while he understood the “concern” of the people of the Canary Islands, their failure to evacuate would have been <x2human “=x3>.

Twelve Dutch hospital employees at the Radbouddzic university medical centre in Nijmengen are located in preliminary quarantine after following an incorrect procedure with a patient with hantavirus, the hospital said in a statement Monday evening.

The patient was taken to the hospital on May 7 after being evacuated by the MV Hondius tourist ship. During the patient's blood intake, a standard procedure was followed, instead of a stricter protocol required because of the virus's <x0-natural”.

The hospital also said that no recent international regulations were followed during the patient's urinary annihilation.

Hospital employees will be in preventive quarantine for six weeks, “even though the risk of infection is low”, the hospital said. The patient with hantavirus is also in quarantine.

Sorry this happened at our university medical center. We will carefully investigate the course of events to learn lessons from this and prevent it from happening in the future”Bertine Lauis, chairman of Radboudmic Executive Board, said.

Passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship affected by the hantavirus arrive at Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands, on Sunday, May 10, 2026.

There are no specific vaccines or treatments for the virus, but health officials have said that the public is low and have rejected comparisons with COVID-19 pandemics.

The Dutch flagship was expected to arrive at Rotterdam on Sunday evening, according to its operator, where the disinfecting procedures would be submitted.