Two planes carrying 28 passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship, where an outbreak of hantavirus occurred, landed in the Netherlands on Tuesday, and one of the Dutch hospitals treating a patient with hantavirus has quarantined 12 staff members as a precautionary measure, Reuters reports.
Western media also report that passengers who are not Dutch nationals will be sent for treatment in their home countries.
Employees of the Dutch medical center at the University of Nijmegen have been placed under a six-week preventive quarantine, as it was discovered that updated strict protocols were not followed while handling test samples. The hospital reported that the risk of infection for employees remains “very low.”
According to the latest data, three passengers on the MV Hondius have died from hantavirus: a married couple from the Netherlands and a German citizen.
About ten people tested positive for hantavirus. It was noted that the deceased woman and a British man currently in intensive care in South Africa were found to have the Andes strain of hantavirus. Only this type of hantavirus is transmitted from person to person, the country’s Ministry of Health emphasized. Western media reported that this strain is common in Latin America, particularly in Argentina, where the cruise began.
An international evacuation of passengers from the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius is being prepared off the coast of Tenerife after an outbreak of hantavirus was detected on board, causing several cases of illness, while the World Health Organization emphasizes that the risk to public health remains low, Reuters reports.
European countries and the United States are organizing the evacuation of their citizens from the ship, which is heading to a Spanish port near Tenerife, after the WHO informed member states of the evacuation procedure and recommended enhanced medical monitoring of passengers for 42 days from the time of their last contact.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated: “I want you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.”
According to the organization, six cases of infection have been laboratory-confirmed, with two more suspected cases; among the deceased are a married couple from the Netherlands and a German citizen.
The cruise ship is expected to drop anchor near the island between 3:00 a.m. (6:00 a.m. Kyiv time – IF-U) and 5:00 a.m. (8:00 a.m. Kyiv time – IF-U), after which the evacuation will take place from Sunday through Monday at the industrial port of Granadilla.
Passengers will be transported to shore in sealed and secured vehicles via an isolated corridor, followed by repatriation to their countries of origin, while their luggage and the body of the deceased will remain on board until disinfection is complete.
Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands have already sent planes to evacuate their citizens; the EU is sending two additional planes for other European passengers, while the U.S. and the U.K. are preparing their own flights and contingency plans.
The Ukrainian airline SkyUp Airlines recently organized two special repatriation flights from Oman and the United Arab Emirates to Germany, safely returning over 300 passengers.
“We thank our teams and crews, as well as all authorities and partners who made these missions possible. Close cooperation between many organizations, rapid response, and operational experience are essential for achieving safe and reliable results. We remain ready to support additional special and repatriation flights throughout the Middle East and wherever they may be needed,” the airline notes on its LinkedIn page.
Repatriation flights are available on Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Rail passenger transport in Ukraine, which is currently monopolized by Ukrzaliznytsia, requires the introduction of a Public Service Obligations (PSO) mechanism – predictable compensation for subsidized transport, according to Yulia Sirko, first deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on transport and infrastructure (Holos faction).
“There are many passengers who pay either 0 or 50%, for example, as UBD and so on. We have a number of beneficiaries who use transport, including rail, and this is, de facto, not compensated by the state or local authorities,“ she said at an expert discussion held by the Center for Transportation Strategies on ”Rail Freight Tariffs in 2025-2026” on Wednesday.
According to her, without the implementation of a set of PSO laws, Ukrzaliznytsia will be forced to constantly turn to the government and the Verkhovna Rada for funding for unprofitable passenger transportation.
Sirk added that PSOs will make this area transparent and recalled that Ukraine has committed to implementing these standards as part of the Ukraine Facility program.
“Unfortunately, passenger transportation continues to be unprofitable. This requires Ukrzaliznytsia to optimize all processes, optimize its operational activities, understand capital investments for 3-5 years, and understand unprofitability for 3-5 years,” the first deputy chair of the relevant parliamentary committee also noted.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia’s operating loss from intercity and international passenger transportation last year amounted to UAH 8.81 billion with revenues of UAH 10.67 billion, while from suburban transportation it amounted to UAH 9.31 billion with revenues of UAH 0.52 billion.
The Verkhovna Rada recently amended the state budget for 2025 and allocated UAH 8 billion in bank income tax to Ukrzaliznytsia, which should have gone to the Kyiv budget. In May this year, Ukrzaliznytsia also received UAH 4.3 billion from the budget to support passenger transportation during the war.
During the summer of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 1.6% more passengers than last summer – 8.07 million, with the number of passengers transported in August reaching 2 million 845 thousand people.
According to the company’s Facebook post on Monday, twice as many military personnel and their families were transported through the special reserve – 130,600.
During the summer of 2025, 1.6 times more children’s groups were also transported: 328,000 children with their parents on group applications and 16,243 children with their parents traveled in children’s cars.
“From June to August, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 3,895 passengers to safety from Sumy, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions,” Ukrzaliznytsia added.
The company emphasized that despite all the challenges this summer—a critical shortage of cars lost due to shelling and natural aging, a surge in demand during the peak summer season — 39 additional trains and groups of carriages were assigned, which allowed for the transportation of an additional 627,000 passengers and reduced the load on regular routes.
Earlier, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 639,700 passengers between August 18 and 24, which is 0.8% less than a week ago. According to statistics, the total volume of transportation still remained higher than last year: during the reporting week, the excess was 3.9%, or 23,700 passengers. The average number of passengers carried per car from August 18 to 24 was 467, which is 6.4% more than in the same period in 2024.
As reported, in the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia increased passenger traffic by 1.2% compared to the first half of 2024, to 13.52 million. This is 23% more than in January-June 2023, as previously reported by Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi on Facebook.
Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ), the monopoly railway operator, transported 644,000 passengers between August 11 and 17, which is 4.8% or almost 30,000 more than in the same period in 2024.
“As in previous peak weeks, there are many destinations where demand exceeds supply by 5-7 times. We must continue to order new cars, find resources for even more repairs, and move forward with the program to increase the number of Intercity trains!” wrote UZ Chairman Alexander Pertsovsky on his Facebook page.
According to the company, compared to the previous week, transportation also increased by 1.1%.
According to statistics, the number of passengers carried by one car per week reached an average of 476, which is 8.2% more than in the same period in 2024.
In addition, the number of passengers in children’s groups increased 1.5 times to 29,800, and the number of military personnel transported through the special reserve increased 2.4 times to 12,500.
Separately, the statistics noted that the largest number of searches last week were for destinations in both directions on the Kyiv-Lviv route – 151,600 requests against 21,800 seats. The Kyiv-Odesa route had 92,300 requests against 19,100 available seats, Kyiv-Kharkiv – 69,200 searches and 18,500 seats, Kyiv-Peremyshl – 65,000 requests against 22,800 available seats, and Kyiv-Dnipro – 55,000 searches and 16,900 seats.
The current solution from Ukrzaliznytsia is to increase the efficiency of car utilization, namely, after arriving from their main route, cars go on their next trip, managing to make another “loop” between their main route.
As reported, in the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia increased passenger traffic by 1.2% compared to the first half of 2024, to 13.52 million. This is 23% more than in January-June 2023, Pertsovsky previously reported on Facebook.
