One of five French people flown back to France Sunday from the cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is showing symptoms of the illness, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said.
"On of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane," he posted on X. "These five passengers have immediately been placed in strict isolation until further notice.
"They are getting medical treatment and will have tests and a medical check-up," he added.
Lecornu also said he would issue a decree later Sunday authorising appropriate isolation measures being put in place to protect the public.
From early Sunday, passengers from the MV Hondius have been evacuated from the ship, anchored off the Spanish island of Tenerife. From there, they have been flown out to hospitals in their home countries or in the Netherlands for medical checks.
A jet carrying the five evacuated French cruise ship passengers landed a little before 4:30 pm (1430 GMT) Sunday at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, AFP journalists saw.
Shortly afterwards, they were transferred to a convoy of five ambulances and taken under police escort to the Bichat hospital in Paris, an AFP photographer saw.
The original plan was for them to be kept in quarantine for 72 hours, so doctors could carry out a complete medical examination before they were allowed home for another 45 days under special medical supervision.
"Three days under surveillance, that doesn't bother us at all," one passenger, Roland Seitre, said just before taking off from Tenerife earlier Sunday.
"We haven't had any cases on board since the end of April and nobody is sick," he added.
Lecornu's announcement of the symptomatic passenger however suggests tighter measures are now being prepared. Earlier Sunday, a joint statement from the foreign ministry and health ministry had envisaged just this possibility.
If any of the returnees showed symptoms, they would immediately be reclassified as a "suspect case" and taken for evaluation and treatment in the appropriate medical establishment, the statement said.
On Sunday afternoon, Lecornu held a special meeting with key ministers and top health officials at his offices to discuss the care of the new arrivals.
Among those present were Health Minister Stephanie Rist, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
In his statement on X later Sunday, Lecornu said the health minister would be issuing a statement in the evening.
Flights taking the former cruise ship passengers out of Tenerife were continuing Sunday, bound for Britain, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United States.
The World Health Organization has said that all former passengers from the MV Hondius were considered "high-risk" contacts requiring 42 days of medical supervision.
Three passengers from the ship -- 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.
The only hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person -- the Andes virus -- has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern.
It has an incubation period of up to six weeks.
But WHO officials have stressed that the situation is not comparable in risk to the deadly 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.
dho-bur-pan-pho/jj/rmb
