SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers' last road trip of the regular season was a successful one.
The Niners clinched a playoff spot while in their hotel on Sunday, beat the Indianapolis Colts 48-27 on Monday night and returned home knowing they now have a chance to go on a Super Bowl run without hitting the road again until next season.
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San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks near the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs past Indianapolis Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu (97) and defensive tackle Grover Stewart (90) during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, foreground, celebrates after scoring against the Indianapolis Colts during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
San Francisco (11-4) finishes the season with games at home against Chicago and Seattle. With wins in both of those, the 49ers would clinch home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs and would be two wins away from playing in the Super Bowl in their home stadium on Feb. 8.
“I think that’s obviously the reality of what could happen if we just take it one game at a time,” quarterback Brock Purdy said. “But for us, once we get in the playoffs and everything too, that’s going to be a brawl in itself. So, that’s a whole other road for us, man. We’ve got to go put on a good showcase and win the game on Sunday against Chicago.”
The 49ers were tested for a while against 44-year-old Philip Rivers and the banged-up Colts but a nearly flawless offensive performance led by Purdy and a late pick-6 by Dee Winters let them pull away for the comfortable win.
The competition will be tougher the next two weeks, but if Purdy and the offense can maintain this level they have a chance in any game. Purdy became the first San Francisco QB to throw at least five TD passes in a game since Steve Young had six in Super Bowl 29 against the San Diego Chargers in a signature performance.
“He’s playing pretty consistent in how he’s played,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I think Brock has played a pretty high level since he got in this league, and I honestly think, I think he’s playing very well, but I think he’s always played pretty good.”
Christian McCaffrey ran for 117 yards and caught two TD passes in one of his most productive games of the season.
That kept punter Thomas Morstead on the sideline for the second straight week as San Francisco went back-to-back games without punting for the first time in franchise history.
Passing game. Purdy was nearly perfect against the Colts outside of a late interception when he threw high over the middle in the fourth quarter. He finished 25 for 34 for 295 yards, throwing touchdown passes on San Francisco's first three drives of the game. Purdy has thrown 13 TD passes in five games since returning from a toe injury, leading the Niners to wins in all five.
Shanahan's replay challenges. Shanahan fell to 1 for 4 on replay challenges this season when he threw the flag following a completion to Michael Pittman in the third quarter. The initial replays made it look like a clean catch and the call was upheld, costing San Francisco a timeout. Shanahan then didn't challenge a potential TD throw to Jake Tonges that was ruled out of bounds even though a replay showed he might have dragged his second foot in the end zone. It ended up not mattering when Purdy threw a TD pass to McCaffrey on the next play.
Rookie defensive linemen. The Niners got the first career sacks from rookies Alfred Collins and C.J. West, raising the team total to an NFL-low 18 on the season. This marked the first time since 2016 that San Francisco got sacks from two rookies in the same game with DeForest Buckner and Ronald Blair doing it in Week 16 that season against the Rams.
Pass defense. San Francisco got carved up for much of the night by Rivers. After throwing for just 120 yards in his first game out of retirement, Rivers threw for 277 yards and two TDs against the Niners, leading the Colts to three touchdowns and two field goals on their first six drives.
TE George Kittle left the game with an ankle injury and didn't return. Kittle said after the game that he believed he avoided a high ankle sprain but the team is uncertain whether he will be able to play this week.
6 — The 49ers became the sixth team in the regular season or playoffs since at least 1960 to go back-to-back games without punting. The Colts did it earlier this season.
The 49ers host Chicago on Sunday night.
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San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks near the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs past Indianapolis Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu (97) and defensive tackle Grover Stewart (90) during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, foreground, celebrates after scoring against the Indianapolis Colts during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
