Everyone still on board the cruise ship Hondius when it docked in Rotterdam on Monday morning has tested negative for the hantavirus, the health minister Sophie Hermans has told MPs.
The 25 crew members and two Dutch medics – a doctor and a nurse – were tested as soon as the ship reached a sealed-off section of the port. None had shown symptoms, Hermans said in a letter to parliament on Thursday.
The Dutch patient who had been treated at Radboudumc teaching hospital in Nijmegen has been discharged and is in self-isolation under national infection control guidelines.
The Hondius was expected to dock by midday on Monday after sailing from the Canary Islands. A specialist firm has now begun cleaning and disinfecting the vessel – work that is expected to take several days.
A small number of crew remain aboard to keep the ship running. Some Dutch crew have gone into home quarantine while foreign crew who cannot travel home directly are staying in portacabins in a quarantine zone in the port.
Update, 22 May: A new case has since been confirmed in a separately repatriated crew member who had been in home quarantine. Read more.
