Last six passengers leave Hantavirus-hit ship as captain hails their patience

The last six passengers and some crew members of the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius left the ship on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Monday as its captain praised their patience and discipline during an 'extremely challenging' few weeks.

Strong winds forced the polar expedition ship carrying the remaining passengers - four Australians, one Briton who lives in Australia and a New Zealander - to dock briefly at the port of Granadilla de Abona to allow them to disembark safely and board a flight to the Netherlands, where they will spend time in quarantine, Spain's health ministry said.

Nineteen crew members from the ship and three doctors who treated them were due to take off for the Netherlands on a separate flight, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.

The MV Hondius was then due to continue its journey with 26 crew members to the Netherlands - its flag state - where it would be disinfected, health authorities said.

"I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike," Captain Jan Dobrogowski, from the Netherlands, said in a video posted on Oceanwide Expeditions' website.

The disembarkation caps a complex operation that has so far resulted in 94 people being evacuated and repatriated to their countries of residence, 41 days after the MV Hondius set off from southern Argentina and nine days after the first positive test result for the respiratory viral infection.

Three people - a Dutch couple and a German national - have died since the start of the outbreak of the virus, which is usually spread by wild rodents but also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.

The World Health Organization said on Monday there were now seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus, and two other suspected cases - one who died before being tested, and one on Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where there were no tests available.

FRENCH WOMAN'S CONDITION DETERIORATING

The confirmed cases include a French passenger, who tested positive after the ship docked in the Canary Islands on Sunday.

Her condition was deteriorating, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said.

Meanwhile, the Spanish health ministry said on Monday that one Spaniard who is quarantining in Madrid after being evacuated from the ship in Tenerife has tested positive.

The remaining 13 Spaniards quarantining at the same military hospital tested negative for the virus, the ministry added in a statement.

The patient presented no symptoms and was in a good condition, the ministry said.

Additional tests were being done and a definitive result would be known in the coming hours, it added.

US Department of Health and Human Services officials said on Monday that 18 passengers from the cruise ship were flown back to the US and quarantined, with the one passenger who tested positive in a Nebraska biocontainment unit.

The passengers are currently being monitored at US medical facilities, with 16 of them at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and two in Atlanta, including one who is experiencing symptoms, the officials said at a press briefing.

They added that the risk to the general public remains very low.

President Donald Trump said he was satisfied with his country's handling of the outbreak.

"It looks like it's just a disease that we've had around in a very small way for a long time. Not a good one to catch, because, you know, it's a very severe disease if you catch it, but it's very hard to catch," Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday.