German cruise passengers to be quarantined after Hantavirus outbreak

German passengers evacuated from the cruise ship Hondius are to be placed in quarantine following the hantavirus outbreak on board the vessel, the Health Ministry of the state of Brandenburg said in a statement on Sunday.

The health officials said they have arranged for specialists to meet them upon their arrival in the Netherlands on Sunday evening before they are taken to their home states in Germany for quarantine.

Emergency services from the Essen and Frankfurt fire brigades are collecting the four passengers from the military airport in Eindhoven on Sunday. They will then be taken to Frankfurt in what’s termed a “special isolation transport”.

One of the German passengers is to be transferred to Berlin’s Charité hospital, a spokesman for the health department of the Berlin Senate told dpa.

All four are currently symptom-free, the Brandenburg health officials said. Should that change during the flight, the patient would be taken to Düsseldorf University Hospital.

A 65-year-old woman is already in the infectious diseases ward there. The woman was also on the Hondius and, according to the authorities, had close contact with a patient who died on board from a hantavirus infection.

The evacuation of passengers and crew from the cruise ship began on Sunday in Tenerife with the first passengers and crew members being brought ashore in small groups by boat just a few hours after the Hondius entered the port of Granadilla in the south of the holiday island. They were then taken by bus to the nearby Tenerife Sur airport and flown out.