Last Updated: May 11, 2026, 4:08 AM EDT
Passengers from the MV Hondius began disembarking Sunday morning in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were placed on charter flights to return to their home countries. A Department of State airlift carrying American evacuees arrived early Monday in Nebraska; officials said 17 U.S. citizens were on the flight and at least one tested positive for hantavirus, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said.
Health authorities say the total number of confirmed and probable hantavirus cases linked to the ship has risen to 10. Two people have been confirmed to have died from the virus and one death remains suspected to be hantavirus-related.
On the U.S. flight, two passengers travelled in aircraft biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution,” HHS said. Of those two, one had mild symptoms and the other tested PCR-positive for hantavirus. The PCR-positive individual was isolated during flight and will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medicine for further evaluation and care. Additional evacuees will be assessed and monitored at the National Quarantine Unit.
HHS said the flight first routed to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; the passenger with mild symptoms is expected to receive care at a second RESPTC after initial assessment.
France reported that one of five French nationals evacuated from the MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus. That passenger developed symptoms on the flight to France and was hospitalized in a specialist infectious diseases facility. French officials identified 22 ‘‘contact cases’’ — people who may have been exposed on two flights — and said those contacts have been isolating.
What is hantavirus? Health agencies describe hantaviruses as a family of viruses that can cause serious illness and death. Human infections typically occur through contact with infected rodents or their droppings; person-to-person transmission is rare and has been suspected only for a specific Andes virus subtype in South America. Treatment is mainly supportive; public health actions focus on isolation, contact identification, monitoring, and specialized care when needed.
Authorities continue to monitor evacuees, perform follow-up testing, and trace contacts as the situation develops.