A plane carrying British passengers who spent weeks on board the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius has touched down in the UK.
The repatriation flight landed at Manchester Airport carrying 20 British nationals who disembarked from the ship in Tenerife earlier today.
They will now be transferred to an isolation facility at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside.
The hospital was previously used to quarantine patients returning from Wuhan at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emergency services in the North West of England said they expected the passengers to be kept in the ‘managed setting’ for up to 72 hours.
They added that the NHS Trust and hospital is ‘operating as normal’ with no risk to patients, visitors or staff and ‘people should continue to come forward for care as usual’.
Following their isolation, public health specialists will assess whether passengers can isolate at home or at another suitable location based on their living arrangements.
They will then stay in self-isolation for 45 days and will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes.
A plane carrying repatriated British nationals from the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak, arrives at Manchester Airport
Janelle Holmes, the chief executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said in a letter to staff: ‘We have been asked by NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to house the guests, recognising how quickly and positively we responded to and supported the repatriation of British nationals from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘We will be welcoming the guests on Sunday May 10, 2026 and they will all be screened for symptoms before they arrive on site; nobody showing any symptoms will be transferred here.
‘If anyone becomes unwell after arrival, they will be transferred quickly to another facility.’
The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning, with Spanish authorities starting evacuations of the ship by nationality.
Passengers were told to leave their luggage on the ship and were only allowed to take a small bag with essential items such as their phone and passport.
British passengers were tested for hantavirus before disembarking and returning to the UK.
Some 30 crew members and a nurse from the Netherlands, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam, where it will undergo disinfection, WHO said.
A joint statement from NHS England North West, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, Merseyside Police, North West Ambulance Service and Wirral Council prior to the plane’s arrival, said: ‘Organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside are working closely with colleagues from the UK Health Security Agency and other government bodies to support the repatriation of passengers from MV Hondius.
‘In line with advice from the UK Health Security Agency, on arrival, they will be taken to a managed setting for clinical assessment and testing. We expect this initial stay to be up to 72 hours.
‘Following this, public health specialists will assess whether they can isolate at home or at another suitable location, based on their living arrangements.
‘The risk to the general population remains very low.’
Meanwhile, British Army troops were parachuted into the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, to treat a British national with a suspected case of the virus.
Six paratroopers, an RAF consultant and Army nurse from 16 Air Assault Brigade were parachuted onto the South Atlantic island, while oxygen supplies and medical aid was also dropped on Tristan da Cunha, which is normally only accessible by boat.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was the first time medical personnel had been parachuted in to provide humanitarian support.
