CEBU: Under the sweltering heat in this central Philippine province known for its beaches, convoys swept down palm-lined roads carrying South-East Asian leaders bound for the Asean Summit.
Friday, 08 May 2026 | 5:03 PM MYTShips at dock at Granadilla port, where the MV Hondius, carrying nearly 150 people, is expected to arrive within three days, Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia said, adding that those on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease, in Granadilla de Abona, Spain May 7, 2026.
REUTERS/Borja Suarez AMSTERDAM, May 8 - A new suspected case of hantavirus was identified in a British national on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha on Friday, as efforts continue to trace passengers of the luxury cruise ship hit by the virus and their immediate contacts. The British health security agency did not disclose further details of the new suspected case on the world's remotest inhabited island, home to only around 200 people, where the cruise ship made a stop on April 15.
Four others confirmed to be infected, two Britons, a Dutch and a Swiss national, are being treated in hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland. A Dutch woman died shortly after she had left the ship on April 24. She was the wife of 'patient zero', the Dutch man who died on the ship on April 11. The World Health Organisation said it would provide an update on the latest suspected and confirmed case numbers later on Friday.
Dutch health authorities said on Thursday two people who had been close to the woman before she was taken off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25, due to her deteriorating medical condition, had tested negative for the virus. Among them was a flight attendant who had been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam with symptoms of a possible infection, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.
The Dutch public health institute said it was still waiting on clear test results for the third case on Friday. Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but the strain identified in the passengers of the Hondius can in rare cases be transmitted person-to-person. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the hantavirus outbreak as 'level 3' emergency response, the lowest level of emergency activation.
Other experts have also stressed the low probability of a widespread contagion, but the outbreak has put authorities on high alert as they urge all who have been in contact with passengers who left the Hondius before the outbreak was reported to be mindful of possible symptoms. Several U.S. states have said they are monitoring asymptomatic residents who had returned home after disembarking from the cruise ship.
NO SYMPTOMATIC PASSENGERS ON BOARD SHIP Cruise operator Oceanwide on Thursday said there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship, which was expected to dock in Tenerife in the Canary Islands early on Sunday. The WHO has said it was working on step-by-step guidance for when the dozens of passengers remaining on the ship disembark and travel home.
The British health service said nationals on board who are not displaying symptoms will be flown back home and asked to isolate for 45 days.
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