Plane carrying passengers from cruise ship hit by virus lands in UK

A plane carrying 20 Britons evacuated from a cruise ship hit by hantavirus has arrived in the UK.

The passengers flew into Manchester Airport on a charted flight from Tenerife, where the HV Hondius docked on Sunday morning, and will now be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, to isolate for 72 hours.

The risk to the general public remains very low, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). None of UK nationals on the flight have reported symptoms, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said earlier.

Three people have died in the outbreak, including two of the six people whom the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed have had hantavirus.

The other confirmed cases include two British nationals, who are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

Hantavirus is a group of viruses carried by rodents. Most do not pass from person to person, but the Andes strain identified in a number of people who had been on the Dutch cruise ship, does.

Twenty-two British nationals were aboard the cruise ship when it docked in the Canary Islands on Sunday. Some could be seen clad in blue protective gear as they were bussed from the Granadilla de Abona port to Tenerife South Airport.

They were tested for hantavirus before getting on the flight.

Janelle Holmes, CEO of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust, which oversees Arrowe Park Hospital, said the former passengers will be screened and continuously assessed when they arrive there.

They will be housed in self-contained flats with access to phones so they can call friends and relatives. They will also be given clothes after having to leave all but the basic essentials on the ship.

A specialist team will be on site throughout their quarantine to support them.

"What we've learnt from past experience is they're going to be absolutely shattered. They've probably felt quite traumatised by the whole experience so the thing for us to do is to make sure that they're here, they're safe, they're welcome," Holmes said.

After leaving Arrowe Park, the former passengers will be asked to self-isolate for a further 42 days as a precaution, UKHSA said. They will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes.

Emergency services in the North West said 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".

"Thank you to all those who worked around the clock to get passengers from MV Hondius back to the UK by special flight this evening with public health protections in place," Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

As well as the confirmed cases, there are also two suspected cases, including a British man who is on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. He is currently in a stable condition and in isolation.

A team of six British Army paratroopers and two medical clinicians have parachuted onto the island to help its two-person medical team provide care to the man and the island's other residents.

It is the first time the UK military has parachuted in medical personnel to provide humanitarian support, according to the MoD.

Meanwhile two Britons are voluntarily self-isolating at home in the UK, having disembarked the vessel at St Helena on 24 April alongside dozens of other passengers before the first case of hantavirus was confirmed.

HV Hondius began its journey on 1 April in Ushuaia, Argentina, with about 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries reported to have initially been aboard.

Many of those still aboard the ship disembarked on Sunday for repatriation to their home countries.

However, some 30 crew members and a nurse from the Netherlands, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, have remained on the ship. It will sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it will undergo disinfection, the WHO said.

With additional reporting by Dominic Hughes