British passengers from rat-virus cruise ship to isolate at Merseyside hospital

They are due to be transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral after being flown back to the UK, Sky News reports.

The site was previously used to receive people returning from China at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

A letter from the chief executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said the group “will be welcoming the guests on Sunday 10 May”. The risk to the general population remains very low, the trust said.

There are currently 22 British nationals still on board the ship - 19 passengers and three crew members - with the vessel expected to dock in Tenerife early tomorrow morning.

The head of the World Health Organisation said earlier that none of the passengers currently on board are showing symptoms of the virus.

This comes as angry Tenerife dock workers gathered to protest against the arrival of the cruise ship as it approaches the island's port.

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The dockers held banners as they assembled outside the Canary Islands' parliament building in Santa Cruz to express fears about the health risk and the lack of information ahead of the ship's arrival.

One protester's banner read: "They block our work, they bring us danger", while another stated: "This is not help. This is a botched job".

Officials from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Foreign Office will greet the MV Hondius ship when it docks in the Canary Islands, with Britons on board tested for hantavirus before they disembark.

If people test negative and are not displaying symptoms, they will be taken straight to a dedicated repatriation flight, with the hope they will be flown back to the UK the same day.

That flight will be staffed by medical professionals and will carry virus testing kits, oxygen, other medical equipment and medicines in case people fall ill.

The ship is currently on track to dock in Tenerife on Sunday, depending on weather conditions, as it sails on a route from the coast off Cape Verde.

Two British men are currently being treated for hantavirus in the Netherlands and Johannesburg, South Africa, while a third British man with symptoms is being cared for on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha.

In total, the Foreign Office said 30 passengers and crew from the MV Hondius are British, with 22 still on board the vessel.

Seven Britons disembarked the ship in St Helena on April 23, with the British man with suspected hantavirus leaving the ship at Tristan da Cunha.

Two Britons who left the ship at St Helena flew back to the UK and are self-isolating in the UK but do not have symptoms.

Four Britons are still on St Helena and a further Briton has been tracked and reached in an undisclosed country outside of the UK.

All those who were in contact with British nationals who left the ship are being traced and contacted by the UKHSA, though there is no indication of how many people that involves.

The Foreign Office is in daily contact with the 22 British passengers and crew on the ship and is answering any questions they have.

They currently have no symptoms of hantavirus.

It is understood that any person who develops symptoms on the ship before it lands would then be treated in the Canary Islands.