Closing summary
Some passengers who left the MV Hondius cruise ship at the centre of a deadly outbreak of hantavirus have departed Tenerife by plane and arrived in the Spanish capital of Madrid.
14 Spanish nationals – 13 passengers and one crew member – were the first to disembark and have reportedly arrived in Madrid, where they face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital.
The evacuation of most of the ship’s passengers and crew would continue until a final repatriation flight to Australia on Monday, according to Spanish health minister Monica García, who confirmed earlier that all passengers on board were asymptomatic.
Five French passengers will be repatriated today, and will be hospitalised for 72 hours for monitoring, after which they will quarantine at home for 45 days, France’s foreign ministry said.
A flight to the Netherlands transporting citizens of Germany, Belgium, Greece and some of the crew from the ship, along with flights to the UK, Canada, Turkey, France, Ireland and the US, are also expected today.
MV Hondius arrived in the Canary Islands this morning carrying 146 people, after three people died of the virus and eight more became ill.
You can read all the latest developments in our wrap up here.
In other news, Russia accused Kyiv of breaking a US brokered ceasefire on Sunday, while Ukrainian officials said one person had been killed and others injured by Russian drone and artillery strikes in the past 24 hours.
Germany is reviving efforts to buy Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, the Financial Times reported, amid concerns there are no European ground-launched long-range systems immediately available.
Thanks for following along. We are closing the blog now. But you can keep up with the rest of our Europe coverage here.
Spanish health minister Monica García said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew would continue until a final repatriation flight to Australia on Monday. About 46 people have got off the MV Hondius so far today, Dr Diana Rojas Alvarez, the health operations lead (from Tenerife), said.
