French passenger on board hantavirus-hit ship tests positive as Irish passengers land home

The Irish evacuees from the MV Hondius will now quarantine in a HSE facility

A passenger gives a thumbs-up as Spanish health officials help them disembark the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius at Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on Sunday. Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty

A French passenger who was on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has tested positive for the virus. 

Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a World Health ​Organisation tally from Friday, of whom six are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three have died - a Dutch couple and a ​German national.

The French health minister said that the person's health was deteriorating. Additionally, one of the 17 Americans being repatriated also tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus, while a second has mild symptoms. 

It was not clear if these two cases were included in the ​six reported by the WHO.

It comes as two Irish passengers on board the cruise ship have arrived home to Ireland. Cork-born author Ann Lane and her travelling companion from Dublin left Tenerife aboard An Air Corps jet just earlier this evening. The plane landed back at Baldonnell Airbase in Dublin between shortly after 9pm.

The Irish evacuees will now quarantine in an HSE facility.

Senator Aubrey McCarthy, who helped arrange Ms Lane’s repatriation back to Ireland, last night told the Irish Examiner that “everything is on course". 

“I was chatting to her earlier and she is very happy with the Department of Health and the consular officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

She is upbeat, and in great form and knows she will have to quarantine when she gets back.

Ms Lane, who has travelled on the ship five previous times, and her travelling companion from Dublin, are due to be ferried from the cruise ship to a cordoned off area of the harbour.

Ms Lane previously told the Irish Examiner of her shock at learning for the first time that passengers had fallen ill and then died from the virus.

She, however, kept her spirits up by reading, watching Netflix films, and going for regular walks aboard the ship which anchored off Cape Verde after passengers started falling ill.

The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning, with Spanish authorities beginning evacuations of the ship by nationality and ferrying passengers to a port by small boat.

Planes from Spain, France, Canada, UK and the Netherlands have already departed the island.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said its goal was to finish the ship’s evacuation, with the exception of 30 crew members remaining on board, by 7pm on Monday.

A view of the m/v Hondius Cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)

In a post on social media on Sunday morning, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said WHO experts on the ground "are working with the Spanish Health Ministry on the epidemiological assessment of the passengers and coordinating charter flights with the Interior Ministry.”

The MV Hondius is not allowed to dock directly at any of the Port of Granadilla harbour wall mooring points, and is currently in the middle of the port.

It is anchored a short distance away from harbour facilities but within the port itself to protect it from any inclement sea conditions.

-Additional reporting from Reuters