A cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, where nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home after weeks at sea.
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius docked at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, escorted by a Civil Guard vessel. Maritime tracking service VesselFinder confirmed the arrival.
Passengers and some crew members are expected to evacuate before the ship continues to the Netherlands. Three people have died from the outbreak: a Dutch husband and wife, and a German woman. Several others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
Health authorities have confirmed the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain that can transmit from person to person, among those who tested positive.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said on Saturday that everyone on board is classified as a high-risk contact. However, she added that the risk to the general public and people of the Canaries remained low.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO chief, arrived in Spain on Saturday to oversee the ship evacuation. In an open letter to the people of Tenerife, he sought to reassure residents.
“I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID,” Tedros wrote.
He told reporters on arrival in Tenerife that he was confident the operation would succeed. “Spain is ready and prepared,” he said.
Regional authorities refused to allow the vessel to dock. The ship will remain offshore while passengers are screened and evacuated between Sunday and Monday, the only window health officials say the weather will allow.
Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operator, said all guests and a limited number of crew members were expected to begin leaving the ship from around 07:00 GMT.
“Once disembarked, they will be transferred immediately to their allocated aircraft,” the Dutch firm said.
The WHO confirmed on Friday that six out of eight suspected cases had tested positive for hantavirus. No suspected cases remain on the ship.
The vessel is sailing from Cape Verde, where three infected people were evacuated earlier in the week.
Spain’s health and interior ministers said in Madrid that there would be no contact with the local population, and passengers would leave by nationality groups.
“All areas the passengers pass through will be sealed off,” the interior minister said, adding that a maritime exclusion zone would be in force around the vessel.
The MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.
Juan Petrina, provincial health official, said there was an “almost zero chance” the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia, based on the virus’s incubation period and other factors.
Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them.
A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said on Friday.
The passenger, the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak, had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on 25 April but was removed before take-off. She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish authorities said a woman on that flight was being tested for hantavirus, having developed symptoms at home in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital, said Javier Padilla, health secretary.
Two Singapore residents who had been on the ship tested negative for the disease but would remain in quarantine, the city state’s authorities said on Friday.
British health authorities also said on Friday there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world’s most isolated settlements with around 220 people.
At the port of Granadilla de Abona early on Sunday morning, white tents had been set up along the quay and police had secured part of the port. Despite the situation, daily life appeared largely normal, with some people swimming, others shopping at the market or sitting at cafe terraces.
“There are worries there could be a danger, but honestly I don’t see people being very concerned,” David Parada, a lottery vendor, said.
