Passengers and some crew members were taken off a virus-stricken cruise ship on Sunday, to begin long journeys back to their home countries.

Most of the around 150 people on board the MV Hondius were ferried ashore and bused to an airport on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, from where they boarded chartered planes.

All were asymptomatic and had tested negative for hantavirus, which had claimed three lives and infected at least eight people who had been on the ship.

After the evacuation, which was led by Spain, 30 crew members will remain on board and take the ship back to its home port in the Netherlands.

Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia said on Sunday things were "proceeding normally" and that there was no risk to the public.

"We believe that alarmism, misinformation, and confusion are contrary to the basic principles of preserving public health," she added.

Fourteen Spanish nationals were the first off the ship, followed by groups from the Netherlands, Greece, and Germany. Aircraft were also set to leave for the United Kingdom and the United States, with the final flight set for Monday, bound for Australia.

The ship had not been allowed to dock and had been ordered to remain offshore, with a security perimeter around it and police boats patrolling nearby.

An intensive care doctor from the hospital on Tenerife told the BBC the facility was ready with special isolation facilities, should anyone show signs of the virus.

"We are absolutely ready," Mar Martin said. "We've never seen (the hantavirus) before, but it's a virus, with some complications, just like we manage every day. We are fully trained for that."

Many of the evacuees will likely face quarantine back home because the hantavirus has an incubation period of nine weeks.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, was in Tenerife for the evacuation and said the authorities had handled the situation well and that there was no danger of the virus spreading.

"Your concern is legitimate, because of the experience of COVID: that trauma is still in our minds," he said. But "because of how the virus works, and because of how the Spanish government has prepared to avoid any problem", there is no chance of it becoming an epidemic.

Some passengers got off the vessel before it arrived in Tenerife and have been traced.

Among them, a British man who lives on the remote volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha, is believed to be ill with the virus. The UK confirmed on Friday it has parachuted experts and equipment onto the island to treat him.

The outbreak began after the cruise ship visited the southernmost tip of Argentina on April 1, where birdwatchers visited a landfill that was home to infected rats.

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