More than 20 British passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship hit by hantavirus could fly back to the UK this weekend after plans have been made to dock the vessel in Tenerife. 

Officials from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Foreign Office will greet the MV Hondius ship when it docks in the Canary Islands on Sunday, with the Britons on board to be tested for hantavirus.

If those tested are negative and not displaying any symptoms, they will be escorted to a dedicated repatriation flight with the hope they will be flown back to Britain later in the day. 

Spain says officials are in advanced talks with the British government to send the flight, which will have medical professionals aboard and medications and equipment in case anyone falls ill.

Depending on weather conditions, the ship is on course to dock in Tenerife as it sets sail on a route from the coast off Cape Verde. 

The majority of Britons aboard the ship are expected to self-isolate at home, however, the UKHSA will make arrangements for those who can't to stay at alternative facilities. Details of this will be released at a later date. 

A total of 30 passengers and crew from the MV Hondius are British, according to the Foreign Office, with 22 of those still on the ship. 

Seven Britons disembarked the ship in St Helena on April 23, and a British man with suspected hantavirus left the ship on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. 

The two Britons who left the ship at St Helena flew back to the UK and are self-isolating in the UK but do not have symptoms.

Currently, four Britons remain in St Helena with the other tracked and reached in an undisclosed country outside of the UK.

Two British men are also being treated for hantavirus in the Netherlands and Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Martin Anstee, a 56-year-old retired police officer and expedition guide on the MV Hondius, has been confirmed as one of the cases being treated in the Netherlands.

He was evacuated from the ship on Wednesday and remains in stable condition.

All those who had previously left the ship but been in contact with British nationals are being traced and contacted by the UKHSA, however, there is no indication of how many people that entails.

The Foreign Office has confirmed it is in daily contact with the 22 British passengers and crew still aboard the ship. 

At present, they do not have any symptoms of the virus, but it is understood that any person who develops symptoms on the ship before disembarking will be treated in the Canary Islands. 

Those returning to the UK will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes to self-isolate, where they must remain for 45 days and will be self-testing. 

Further testing will be carried out once the 45-day isolation period ends.

Countries worldwide have been scrambling to trace the 29 passengers of 12 nationalities who disembarked from the ship at St Helena after its first leg on April 24, who may have unwittingly spread the deadly virus back home. 

A total of nine confirmed cases of hantavirus have so far been linked to the cruise ship, including the two British men, with the further suspected case in a British man.

Five of the nine cases overall are confirmed hantavirus, while four remain suspected cases.

Around 30 people are now known to have left the cruise ship when it docked in St Helena towards the end of April, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died.

The outbreak is believed to have originated in a seagull-plagued rubbish tip in an Argentine town known as 'the end of the world'.

The country's government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple who later died contracted the virus in Ushuaia during a bird-watching outing at a garbage dump before boarding the vessel.

WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the first two cases 'travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a birdwatching trip which included visits to sites where the species of rat known to carry the virus was present.'

Three people in total have died linked to the outbreak, including a 69-year-old Dutch woman who had the virus. 

The woman's husband, who was also Dutch, and a German woman also died. Their cases are currently under investigation.

In a statement on Friday, the UKHSA said: 'UK Government staff will be on the ground ready to support the British nationals disembarking.

'British passengers and ship crew not displaying any symptoms of hantavirus will be escorted by UK Government staff to an airport and given free passage back to the UK.'

It said Foreign Office officials and UKHSA teams will continue to support all passengers.

It added: 'UKHSA is working with partners to ensure the flight operates under strict infection control measures.

'Public health and infectious disease specialists from UKHSA and the NHS will be on board to monitor British nationals whilst on the flight, to ensure that preventative measures are in place and to provide any care in the unlikely event that any passengers become unwell on the flight.

'Follow-up is already under way for individuals who may have been in contact with cases and have since returned to the UK or are in UK Overseas Territories.'

It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday morale has improved on the ship since it started its journey to Tenerife.

It confirmed two doctors are on board, alongside infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who are conducting a medical assessment of all passengers and crew.

While the risk to the public is low, Dr Ghebreyesus added there could be more cases because of the incubation period of the Andes virus – the variant of hantavirus linked to the outbreak.

Experts believe the incubation period for the virus in the human body can extend to six weeks.

Hantavirus is a rare respiratory disease usually transmitted by infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers.

There are no vaccines and no known cure.

Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the pandemic sciences institute at the University of Oxford, said: 'I believe the UKHSA, Foreign Office and NHS are taking all the right and necessary measures to protect the UK citizens involved in this challenging incident and to protect the broader UK population.

'Repatriation and isolation is the right thing to do, morally and scientifically.'