The plane carrying evacuated British citizens leaves Tenerife South Airport

British citizens arrive at Tenerife South airport by bus, after being evacuated from the hantavirus-struck cruise ship.

A complex day-long operation to repatriate occupants of a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak neared completion late Sunday after 94 people of various nationalities were flown home from Spain's Canary Islands. Three passengers from the MV Hondius -- a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman -- have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April. But health officials have stressed that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.