The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a direct 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 people 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, WHO’s director general, arrived in Spain and will be joined by senior government officials in Tenerife to oversee the safe disembarkation of passengers and crew.
He said on X that he was in contact with the ship’s captain and a WHO colleague on board who said that, at this stage, there are no additional people on the ship who are showing symptoms of hantavirus.
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,” Tedros 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 United Nations health agency 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.
‘I don’t like this very much’
Simon Vidal, 69, is among Tenerife residents expressing concerns about the cruise ship.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much. 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.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero, 27.
“We feel a bit unsafe. We don’t feel as there are 100 per cent 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.”
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 up between one and eight weeks after exposure.
WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said on Saturday that nobody aboard the cruise ship is showing symptoms, though risks everywhere remain low.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship won’t 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 told a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Authorities aim to complete the evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday, Maria Van Kerkove, director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said in a briefing on Saturday.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship. 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 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, 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 European Union’s 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:
The World Health Organization says a hantavirus cruise ship outbreak is serious but unlikely to spark a new pandemic, despite confirmed human-to-human transmission and an international contact-tracing effort.
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.
6 Canadians isolating at home
On Friday, officials from the Public Health Agency of Canada provided more details about the Canadians affected by the hantavirus outbreak.
Dr. Joss Reimer, Canada’s chief public health officer, said six Canadians were aboard the ship. Two of those passengers returned to Canada last week before the outbreak was first identified. Those two passengers, as well as one other Canadian, were on a flight to Johannesburg and may have come in contact with a symptomatic individual, Reimer said.
The three, two from Ontario and one from Quebec, returned to Canada on April 26 and 27. They “have received guidance to self-isolate” and are being actively monitored by local public health authorities. None were reporting any symptoms.
Public health investigations are also underway by local authorities regarding three more Canadians — two in Alberta and one in Ontario — who were on another flight where they may have had contact with a confirmed case. Those three have returned to Canada, Reimer said.
Dutch public health authorities have also 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 and the Environment spokesperson Harald Wychgel said Saturday.
