Twenty Britons evacuated from a cruise ship hit by hantavirus have arrived at a UK hospital, as they begin 45 days of self-isolation.

They will spend the next 72 hours at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside, after their chartered flight from Tenerife landed at Manchester Airport on Sunday. They will then be asked to spend a further 42 days self-isolating at home.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) told the BBC that all of the evacuees are "healthy and asymptomatic".

Three people have died following the outbreak on the MV Hondius, including two of the six people whom the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed have had hantavirus.

The other confirmed cases include two British nationals, who are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

Hantavirus is a group of viruses carried by rodents. Most do not pass from person to person, but the Andes strain identified in a number of people who had been on the Dutch cruise ship, does.

Twenty-two British nationals were aboard the cruise ship when it docked in the Canary Islands on Sunday. Some could be seen clad in blue protective gear as they were bussed from the Granadilla de Abona port to Tenerife South Airport.

They were tested for hantavirus before getting on the flight.

"The UK Government has worked with international partners to ensure the safe return of all remaining British nationals on board the MV Hondius, with passengers now safely transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital," the UKHSA said in a statement.

Twenty British nationals are now being monitored at the hospital for a 72-hour period, along with one German national, who is a UK resident, and one Japanese passenger.

After their time in hospital they will then be asked to spend a further 42 days self-isolating. May said this would likely be at their homes, but that decision would be made on a "case-by-case basis".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday morning, he said "we may need to update" the period of isolation "depending on what the science tells us".

May said throughout that period, they will continue to support the passengers "very closely".

"Not just with testing, but also for the very large emotional turmoil this will obviously have – it's going to be a very stressful period for them and their families," he said.

The support will include clothes and supplies, he said, as many had to leave behind all but essential belongings when they were evacuated.

May also reiterated that the risk to those not directly linked to the cruise is "extremely low indeed", and that the process of testing and contact tracing is still ongoing.

Janelle Holmes, CEO of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust, which oversees Arrowe Park Hospital, said the former passengers will be screened and continuously assessed when they arrive there.

They will be housed in self-contained flats with access to phones so they can call friends and relatives.

A specialist team will be on site throughout their quarantine to support them.

"What we've learnt from past experience is they're going to be absolutely shattered. They've probably felt quite traumatised by the whole experience so the thing for us to do is to make sure that they're here, they're safe, they're welcome," Holmes said.

After leaving Arrowe Park, the former passengers will then be asked to self-isolate for a further 42 days as a precaution. They will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes.

Emergency services in the North West said the NHS trust and hospital is "operating as normal" with no risk to patients, visitors or staff and "people should continue to come forward for care as usual".

"Thank you to all those who worked around the clock to get passengers from MV Hondius back to the UK by special flight this evening with public health protections in place," Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

As well as the confirmed cases, there are also two suspected cases, including a British man who is on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. He is currently in a stable condition and in isolation.

A team of six British Army paratroopers and two medical clinicians have parachuted onto the island to help its two-person medical team provide care to the man and the island's other residents.

It is the first time the UK military has parachuted in medical personnel to provide humanitarian support, according to the MoD.

Meanwhile two Britons are voluntarily self-isolating at home in the UK, having disembarked the vessel at St Helena on 24 April alongside dozens of other passengers before the first case of hantavirus was confirmed.

MV Hondius began its journey on 1 April in Ushuaia, Argentina, with about 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries reported to have initially been aboard.

Many of those still aboard the ship disembarked on Sunday for repatriation to their home countries.

However, some 30 crew members and a nurse from the Netherlands, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, have remained on the ship. It will sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it will undergo disinfection, the WHO said.

With additional reporting by Dominic Hughes

Another one of 17 Americans who are being flown home has mild symptoms, the US health department says.

After being flown to a medical centre in Nebraska, some will be allowed to "self-isolate" in their home states.

An Irish Air Corps jet is bringing home the two Irish passengers from MV Hondius.

The BBC reports from the city of Ushuaia, where experts have been sent to investigate the origins of the outbreak.

Spanish passengers are the first to leave the MV Hondius, after an outbreak saw three people die and several infected.