2 new cases of hantavirus confirmed as cruise ship passengers disembark

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]There appear to be new Hivirus cases this morning. Two of them confirmed, one more symptomatic, all connected with the outbreak aboard that cruise ship in the Atlantic. A French passenger developing symptoms on her repatriation flight from Spain's Canary Islands. She has now tested positive and French officials say she was among five passengers brought home yesterday. They've all been placed into strict isolation. Meanwhile, US health officials say an American passenger has also now tested positive.

[00:00:29]while there is a third one showing symptoms. They were among the 17 Americans returned to the United States yesterday. The MV Hondius now docked in Tenneref, Spain. Brier Stewart is right there with the latest. And Brier uh with at least two new cases, it would appear this uh outbreak is far from over.

[00:00:51]>> Yeah. And I would say that these new cases were not unexpected. And that's because antivirus has a long incubation period. uh can be up to several weeks.

[00:01:00]Um but obviously the timing of this I mean the French uh national uh started reporting symptoms on the flight back to France yesterday afternoon. French health officials say that her dish condition is now deteriorating and that they've identified 22 contacts uh calling them contact cases. So these aren't cases of antivirus but people that have been um I guess in contact that they need to now trace. Uh and in terms of the Americans as the of the 17 there's one uh positive antivirus case and another individual showing symptoms uh you can imagine that that person will certainly be uh closely tested and monitored. And in terms of the Americans are going back to uh two different facilities in the US now to quarantine.

[00:01:44]So let's talk about the ship. U it's been refueled this morning. It's going to be uh reprovisioned over the next couple of hours and there are 54 people still on board the ship. Uh, six of them are passengers, four Australians, one New Zealand, and one uh, British national. They're going to be coming off the ship today along with 18 crew members. And originally, there was supposed to be a flight from Australia coming and a flight from the Netherlands. It seems that the Australian flight had some issues, other technical issues. Um, we're not entirely sure, but it wasn't going to make it here in time. So basically now everybody uh that's departing the ship today is going to be going back to the Netherlands and and obviously everyone will have to be going through uh some kind of isolation period. Again what the World Health Organization is recommending is 42 days from the last known exposure and because we have patients or passengers that left the ship yesterday that have now tested positive for antivirus that would mean that May 10th is is the last known exposure. So certainly there's a lot of close monitoring going on and and again these two new cases at the moment and it's not um unexpected if we do see more of them.

[00:02:54]>> That ship of course Brier right behind you as you note some passengers uh who are still on board many who have been sent home. What happens for those who have been sent back and the ship itself?

[00:03:09]Yeah. And so there there's a few different things. Again, just to talk about what happens here is they're taken off uh they have been taken off in groups. Again, there's six more to come off. They're only allowed to take a plastic bag of their most essential belongings, passport, phone, wallet, that kind of thing. Then they're put uh directly on buses to the airport after about 10 minutes on the ground here where they're given a brief assessment and a document check. So, they're really not spending that much time, but we know that when they board the planes, uh, countries are doing their own testing.

[00:03:38]For instance, the Americans were asking about actually doing antivirus tests on the plane themselves. It looks like they might have done that yesterday on route.

[00:03:44]We've seen, uh, video of, you know, the Canadians getting temperature checks on the forehead as they were entering the plane. So, there's a lot of monitoring going on. Then, there's going to be over the next several weeks. Again, the WHO is recommending 42 days of of uh isolation, but that's just a recommendation. It's a suggestion and countries are kind of taking their own approach. You have some that are going to hospitals, some that are going to quarantine and in the Canadians case, we understand that they're going to be isolating uh the four Canadians that returned yesterday for a minimum of 3 weeks. So, it'll be interesting to see whether or not that changes given these new cases that we have seen. There was a brief update just a short while ago from uh Spain's health minister Monica Garcia talked and I asked her because of these new cases if any of the protocols on the ground here will change. Uh take a listen to some of that answer.

[00:04:34]>> We will make all the protocol and assess all the all all the people. No, but I I think that we have to ensure that all the protocols will be assessed in all the countries to moni monitoring all the all the persons all the people >> and in terms of what's next to the vessel after today in terms of what's next to the vessel is you are going to uh have these everybody depart that is expected to and then the remainder of the people around 30 are going to be going to Roderdam. That's a 5-day voyage from here. And there the boat will kind of go through a complete uh quarantine and decontamination procedure. And of course, those on board will have to go into isolation. And the other thing I think that's important to mention is that the body of the German national, the woman who died earlier this month is still on board that ship and her body will be transported to the Netherlands as well.

[00:05:32]>> All right, Brier Stewart with the MV Honda there offshore. Thank you very much. All right. This uh is where many of the American passengers will end up. It is a federal quarantine facility. Um these are the kinds of uh things that are inside. Exercise bicycles, very simple bed. The American passengers go there for at least the first 3 days of their quarantine and then that could be looking at about 45 days. But it's not the same for all countries of the world.

[00:06:01]Let's take a look at who else.

[00:06:04]So, we're going to start uh with um British passengers. They can expect 3 days of monitoring in hospital followed by a 45day quarantine at home.

[00:06:13]Passengers from France, they're going to spend 3 days in hospital in Paris before selfisolating for a period of 45 days.

[00:06:19]The Canadians, meanwhile, there's a 21-day quarantine period. Looks a lot smaller than other countries, but it can be extended. It's all based on their health conditions, uh up to 42 days.

[00:06:29]That's the same sort of thing we're hearing about passengers from the Netherlands, where the vessel's from.

[00:06:33]They will selfisolate for 42 days while keeping a close eye on their condition.