CAPE VERDE — The Foreign Office is working urgently to repatriate British nationals stranded aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship near the Cape Verde islands following a hantavirus outbreak. There are 19 passengers and four crew members listed as British onboard the vessel, which has remained off the coast of West Africa with passengers isolating in their cabins.

Three people have died and eight cases have been recorded in total, according to the World Health Organization. The ship departed Argentina on April 1 for a weeks-long polar cruise, and about 150 people are still aboard under strict precautionary measures.

"The situation is very serious and deeply stressful for those affected and their families," Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. Cooper said the priority was that "All get safely home with proper protection for public health."

Consular staff are in direct contact with British nationals onboard, and the Foreign Office is working with other countries to facilitate medical evacuations, support Overseas Territories, and return British nationals home as soon as possible. The UK response is being led by the UK Health Security Agency in coordination with the WHO, and the agency said the risk to the UK population was very low and there was no need for concern among the general public. The agency is also working with governments in St Helena, Tristan de Cunha, and Ascension Island on isolation, contact-tracing, and response protocols.

Three symptomatic people were evacuated from the vessel to the Netherlands for medical help on Wednesday. The evacuees included a 56-year-old British doctor, who is in a stable condition, a 41-year-old Dutch crew member, and a 65-year-old German. Two of the medically evacuated people remain in serious condition, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, while the third has no symptoms but was closely associated with a passenger who died on May 2.

Spanish authorities have given permission for the ship to dock in the Canary Islands. Health Minister Mónica García said the vessel will sail to the Canary Islands where all passengers will be evacuated at the Granadilla port in Tenerife, with Spanish passengers quarantined in Madrid and asymptomatic passengers from other countries repatriated. "The arrival of the boat won't represent any risk for the public," García said.

Oceanwide Expeditions said it is expanding medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians arriving by plane from the Netherlands, and that evacuees are being taken by specially equipped planes to locations able to provide specialized care. The origin of the outbreak and whether people other than cruise ship passengers have been infected are unknown. Hantavirus is a group of viruses carried by rodents, with symptoms that can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue from rodent droppings, and the WHO says person-to-person transmission is rare.