WHO head reassures Spanish island's residents before hantavirus ship arrives: 'This is not another COVID'

The head up of the domain wellness organisation (WHO) issued a verbatim message to Tenerife residents on Saturday, reassuring them the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship that's expected to arrive at the Spanish island won't put them in danger.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 aboard, is en route to the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. It's expected to get to Tenerife early Sunday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska are set to head to the island to co-ordinate the disembarkation of passengers and crew.

Some Tenerife residents have said they don't want the ship to dock there, fearing the transmission of the virus. On board the cruise ship, some of the Spanish passengers have voiced concern about how they will be received once on land.

"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 WHO's head said in his message. "The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment.

"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."

On Jan. 30, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern; the organization officially deemed it a global pandemic on March 11 that year. It officially ended the global health emergency status in May 2023.

Since the hantavirus outbreak, three people have died and five passengers who left the ship were said to be infected with the virus, which can cause life-threatening illness.

Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated 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.

The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide said Saturday that nobody aboard the cruise ship is showing symptoms, though risks everywhere remain low.

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife under strict health protocols.

Everyone disembarking will first be medically checked to ensure they are not showing any symptoms, while people will only be taken off the ship if 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 from the cruise ship.

Those disembarking will not take any luggage with them, Garcia said, and will be allowed to disembark with only a small item of hand luggage containing essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, won't disembark, Garcia said. They will remain aboard as the cruise ship then sets sail for the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.

All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, she said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.

According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the European Union civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for high-consequence infectious disease to be on standby.

If anyone falls ill, the medics on board the ship will inform Spanish authorities and the evacuation plane "will be sent to Tenerife so that the sick person can be quickly 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.

WATCH | Why there's concern about the hantavirus cruise ship's travels:

WHO downplays hantavirus pandemic fears as contact tracing ramps up

As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, the government 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.

Two Canadians were among those who've already disembarked from the ship. Federal officials say they're isolating at home in Ontario, as is a third Canadian who was not on the vessel, but who may have come into contact with a symptomatic individual. That person is isolating at home in Quebec, according to the provincial health minister.

On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the potential transmissibility of the virus.

The KLM flight attendant was working on a plane headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25 and had later fallen ill.

The cruise passenger briefly aboard that flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe and was taken off in Johannesburg, where she died.

---

---