AFP, Granadilla De Abona

An American national and a French woman evacuated from the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak have tested positive, officials said yesterday, as the complex operation to repatriate those on board continued.

The French woman, one of five passengers from France flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel unwell on Sunday night, and “tests came back positive”, said Health Minister Stephanie Rist.

Late Sunday, the US health department said one American national evacuated from the ship had “mild symptoms” and that another had tested positive for the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain that is transmissible between humans.

Three passengers from the ship, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship set sail in April.

But health officials have insisted that the risk for global public health is low and downplayed comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rist said 22 more contact cases had been identified among French nationals, including eight people who had travelled on an April 25 flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 more on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam.

The Dutch woman who died was on the flight to Johannesburg and later briefly boarded a flight to Amsterdam but was removed prior to takeoff.

Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked from the ship, plus anyone who may have come into contact with them.

The repatriation operation evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced on Tenerife.