France's 45-Day Andes Hantavirus Quarantine — Strictest Protocol Since the 2018 ECDC Framework

On the afternoon of 10 May 2026, a French Air Force Airbus A330 touched down at Paris-Charles de Gaulle carrying five French nationals airlifted from the MV Hondius hantavirus operation at Tenerife. By the time the plane landed, France had already committed to what is — by a clear margin — the most restrictive Andes virus protocol applied by any of the eight countries receiving Hondius passengers: 72 hours of in-hospital observation at Hôpital Bichat-Claude-Bernard, followed by a 45-day monitored home quarantine. The comparable US protocol is symptom self-monitoring with no mandatory isolation. Spain hospitalises arrivals at the Gomez-Ulla military hospital but for a shorter window. The UK relies on contact tracing without enforced isolation. Why is France going further?

The protocol — exactly what 45 days entails

Santé publique France's protocol for the five Hondius arrivals is published as a Ministère de la Santé Note de Service du 9 Mai 2026. It has three phases:

1. Phase 1 — Bichat clinical observation (Days 0–3): PCR on arrival, repeat at 72 h. Daily clinical assessment with attention to respiratory parameters, urine output, platelet count and temperature curve. Dischargeable to home only if both PCRs are negative and there is no symptomatic deterioration.
2. Phase 2 — Monitored home quarantine (Days 3–45): Home confinement, single bedroom and bathroom where possible, household members screened for symptoms but not quarantined. Daily symptom self-report via the Santé publique France SI-VIC platform. Twice-weekly nurse home visits with vital signs and opportunistic PCR if any symptom emerges.
3. Phase 3 — Discharge with conditional clearance (Day 45+): Clearance certificate issued only if the entire window passed without symptoms and a closing PCR is negative. The Andes virus 42-day incubation window WHO uses for contact tracing is the floor; France adds a 3-day safety margin.

Why 45 days? The 2018 ECDC framework

The 45-day figure is not arbitrary. It traces back to the ECDC Rapid Risk Assessment of November 2018 published after the Epuyén cluster in Argentina. That document proposed that any country accepting an exposed traveller from an active Andes virus household-transmission cluster should enforce isolation through the maximum incubation window plus a safety margin. France was the only EU member state to embed the recommendation directly into national infectious-disease law — a 2019 decree by then-Minister Agnès Buzyn. The Hondius arrivals on 10 May are the first time the decree has been triggered at scale.

The ECDC framework treats Andes virus as exceptional among hantaviruses precisely because it is the only one with documented person-to-person chains. The 2018-19 Epuyén outbreak — covered in depth in our Argentina hantavirus response dossier — included three confirmed second-generation cases in Buenos Aires that were the immediate trigger for the framework's creation.

The five arrivals — what we know

Santé publique France has not released names or detailed biographical information for the five French nationals, citing their right to medical privacy. Public details:

• All five disembarked at Tenerife on the morning of 10 May, in the first wave of 46 passengers cleared by Spanish health authorities.
• A French Air Force A330 (originally configured for medical evacuation) flew them direct from Tenerife to Roissy.
• All five tested PCR-negative on board the Hondius before disembarkation but the test was ordered before the close of the incubation window.
• Eight close contacts in metropolitan France — identified earlier via the 25 April Saint Helena-to-Johannesburg flight roster — are under separate at-home contact-tracing surveillance.

Why this matters beyond France

The 2026 MV Hondius outbreak is the first stress-test of national Andes virus protocols at any meaningful scale. France's move to the strictest end of the spectrum is being watched by EU peers; if it works without significant household onward-transmission, it could become the de-facto European standard for any future cruise- or aviation-linked Andes cluster. If even one second-generation case appears within the 45-day window, the comparison with the more permissive US/UK protocols will be scrutinised.

HantaCount is monitoring all eight Hondius-receiving countries and will update this article when individual nation responses evolve. For the live multi-country case count, see our live tracker. For the broader explanation of why Andes virus is the only hantavirus that warrants person-to-person isolation policy, see Why the Andes strain is unique among hantaviruses.

Sources

• Santé publique France — Note de Service du 9 Mai 2026 sur la prise en charge des voyageurs en provenance du MV Hondius
• ECDC — Rapid Risk Assessment: Andes virus household transmission, November 2018
• Le Monde, Reuters and AFP coverage of the 10 May 2026 Paris arrival
• WHO Disease Outbreak News DON-600 (8 May 2026)