The cruise liner Hondius has begun its journey back to Rotterdam after the last flight carrying passengers and crew touched down in Eindhoven on Monday evening.

A total of 122 people have been repatriated from the ship, which was hit by an outbreak of hantavirus during a cruise in the South Atlantic that left three people dead.

The passengers and crew will have to quarantine for six weeks after arriving home, but the World Health Organization has said the risk to the general public is very low.

Radboudumc university hospital in Nijmegen has placed 12 of its staff in quarantine after they were potentially exposed to the virus while taking blood samples from an infected patient.

The patient was one of two passengers who were evacuated from the ship to hospitals in the Netherlands and subsequently tested positive. The hospital said strict infection control procedures had not been followed when disposing of the patient’s urine.

A statement by Radboudumc said: “At the time of admission, blood was drawn from the patient. This blood was processed according to the standard procedure.

“Due to the nature of the virus, this blood should have been processed according to a stricter procedure.

“Because of these circumstances, twelve employees will go in preventive quarantine for six weeks as a precaution, despite the fact that the chance of infection is small.”

Final flight delayed

The last flight had been due to take off from Tenerife earlier in the afternoon, but strong winds delayed the process of transferring the crew members off the ship.

Most of those on board were crew members, including one Dutch national, as well as a doctor and two epidemiologists who were part of the emergency response team.

Altogether 13 Dutch citizens were evacuated from the ship in the last week, while two of the three people who died from the illness were a Dutch couple.

The 70-year-old man fell ill five days after the ship left Argentina on April 1 and died on April 11. His wife, aged 69, died in hospital in Johannesburg two weeks later after she developed symptoms while travelling back from the island of St Helena.

A German woman also died on board. Altogether there have been nine suspected or confirmed cases, including three people who tested positive for the virus after being evacuated from the ship.

“This is not Covid”

Hantavirus is a virus mainly spread by rodents, but one variant, known as the Andes variant, can be transmitted between people in close contact situations.

Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness director, said at a press conference last week that there was no risk of the virus triggering another pandemic: “This is not Covid, this is not influenza,” she said.

The MV Hondius is now sailing on to Rotterdam, where it will undergo a deep cleaning process after its expected arrival on Sunday morning, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

Altogether 25 people are still on board, including four Dutch nationals, two of whom are medical staff from the public health RIVM who flew out to the ship after the outbreak was confirmed.

The rest of the crew are mostly from the Philippines. They will have to go into quarantine after the ship docks.