Sawt Falasteen - 30 passengers left hantavirus ship in Saint Helena: cruise operator

"Thirty guests disembarked MV Hondius on Saint Helena on April 24, 2026. This number includes the body of the guest who passed away on board MV Hondius on April 11," Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement.

The company added that all people who left the ship had been contacted.

The operator said that on April 1, a total of 114 guests boarded the vessel before it left Ushuaia in Argentina for the cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.

"We are working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops of MV Hondius since March 20," it added.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization said it had informed 12 countries that its nationals had disembarked at Saint Helena.

They were Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, the WHO said.

- Saint Helena facing 'crisis' -

Famous as the site where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Saint Helena is home to a close-knit community of around 4,400 people. The cruise ship called at the South Atlantic island from April 22 to 24.

"We are all by now aware of the challenge we face," Saint Helena's Governor Nigel Phillips said in a statement.

"We are now responding to a crisis none of us would have wished," King Charles III's representative in the territory said.

The Saint Helena government meanwhile said there were currently "no suspected or confirmed cases of hantavirus on the island", and the risk to the public remained low.

"The situation on St Helena remains stable and controlled."

In an update, the government said "more than 95 percent" of the population had no close contact with the ship's passengers or crew, or boarded the vessel, and are currently "at an extremely low risk of infection".

"All individuals identified as having had potential contact with passengers from the MV Hondius have been contacted directly by health officials," it added.

It said that as a precaution, the local health authorities were monitoring a small number of people identified as higher-risk contacts -- namely "those who had close, prolonged contact with the unwell passengers of the vessel".

They have been advised to isolate at home for a period of "45 days from the last known exposure to the virus".

It added that there was no risk to the public from the deceased Dutch passenger whose remains were brought ashore on April 23.

Saint Helena has a weekly air link with Johannesburg, with a flight leaving on April 25.

One Hondius passenger on that flight died in hospital in South Africa, while a British patient from the ship is in hospital in Johannesburg. Both tested positive for hantavirus.

X.Habash--SF-PST