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A cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak arrived at Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, where most of the nearly 150 onboard will be evacuated and flown home after weeks at sea. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius docked near Granadilla, escorted by a Civil Guard vessel, as confirmed by maritime tracking data. Passengers and some crew members are expected to disembark before the ship continues its voyage to the Netherlands.
Three individuals— a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman—have died from the virus, which is typically transmitted through rodents. Several others are ill with the rare disease; notable is that the Andes virus, which can spread between people, has been confirmed in some of those infected, raising international alarm.
WHO’s epidemic and pandemic prevention chief Maria Van Kerkhove stated that everyone on board is considered a high-risk contact, though she assured that the risk to the general public and residents of the Canary Islands remains low. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who arrived in Spain and is expected to oversee the evacuation, reaffirmed this and expressed gratitude to Tenerife’s people for their support. In an open letter, Tedros emphasized, “This is not another COVID.”
At the port early Sunday, officials set up white tents along the quay and secured part of the port, but daily life continued largely unaffected. Some locals were swimming, shopping, or relaxing at cafes. Regional authorities have not allowed the vessel to dock; instead, it will stay offshore while passengers are screened and evacuated between Sunday and Monday, the only weather window available.
The cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions indicated that all remaining guests and a few crew members would start leaving around 7 a.m. GMT, with them immediately transferred to their flights. The WHO announced that six cases had been confirmed out of eight suspected ones, with no remaining suspected cases aboard. The MV Hondius is en route from Cape Verde, where three infected individuals had been evacuated earlier in the week.
Spain’s health and interior ministers confirmed that passengers will leave in groups based on nationality and will pass through sealed-off areas under a maritime exclusion zone. The ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, heading across the Atlantic to Cape Verde. Local health officials believe the infected Dutch man’s chance of contracting the virus in Ushuaia is nearly zero, considering the virus’s incubation period.
Authorities across several countries are tracking disembarked passengers and anyone who may have had contact with them. A flight attendant who came into contact with an infected passenger and showed mild symptoms tested negative for hantavirus. The infected passenger, the wife of the first fatality, was briefly on a flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25 but was removed before takeoff and died the next day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish officials say a woman on that flight is being tested for the virus after developing symptoms at home in eastern Spain. She is currently hospitalized in isolation. Meanwhile, two residents of Singapore who traveled on the ship tested negative but remain in quarantine, and British authorities reported a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, a remote settlement with about 220 residents.
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