122 people have been evacuated from MV Hondius as remaining group heads to Rotterdam
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Timestamp shown in UTC unless otherwise indicated.
By May 12, 122 people had already been evacuated from MV Hondius. That total included 87 passengers and 35 crew members.
The remaining 27 people are sailing toward Rotterdam. Once there, the ship is expected to undergo full disinfection.
What is happening to those still on board
The people still aboard include 25 crew members and two medical professionals. According to CNN, they are expected to reach the Netherlands by the evening of May 17.
After that, the vessel itself will be disinfected. This stage matters not only for sanitation, but symbolically too - it will close the maritime phase of the crisis.
What the evacuation scale looks like
CNN reported that by the morning of May 12, 122 people had been taken off the ship. Most had already returned to their home countries.
Five Australians and one New Zealander remained in the Netherlands awaiting onward repatriation. Even then, the global logistics operation was still stretched and complex.
Once more than a hundred people are removed from one ship, the story stops being local. It becomes an international operation with a long tail of contacts.
How the case picture is changing
Tedros said that by May 12 there were 11 reported cases, including three deaths. Nine of those were confirmed as Andes hantavirus, and two were considered probable.
Some passengers had also disembarked at earlier stops. That is exactly what makes tracing the full contact network so difficult.
- Evacuated - 122 people
- Passengers - 87
- Crew members - 35
- Still on board - 27
Key figures as of May 12
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total evacuated | 122 |
| Passengers | 87 |
| Crew members | 35 |
| Still on board | 27 |
| Confirmed Andes cases | 9 |
| Probable cases | 2 |
| Deaths | 3 |
The next critical phase is no longer at sea. It is now on land, in the form of 42-day monitoring, repeat testing and the possibility of delayed confirmations.
The ship has not yet reached Rotterdam. But the real question is no longer its route - it is how many more cases the monitoring system may still uncover.