WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus travelled to Spain on Saturday to oversee the arrival and evacuation of the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius, where a deadly hantavirus outbreak has killed three passengers. Meanwhile authorities sought to reassure residents of Tenerife ahead of the vessel’s expected docking early Sunday.
Tedros said he would join senior Spanish officials in Tenerife to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers, crew members and medical teams from the Dutch-flagged ship, where three people have died following an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus—the only known variant capable of human-to-human transmission.
In an open letter addressed to the people of Tenerife, the WHO chief stressed that the current public health risk remained “low” and insisted the situation was “not another Covid.” He also thanked the Spanish government for agreeing to receive the vessel, calling the move “an act of solidarity and moral duty.”
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García Gómez said the ship was expected to arrive in the Canary Islands between 3 and 5 a.m. GMT on Sunday. Authorities confirmed that neither the luggage nor the body of one of the deceased passengers would be unloaded in Tenerife, with the vessel set to continue onward to the Netherlands after the evacuation operation.
Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska meanwhile announced that repatriation flights were already being arranged for passengers travelling to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and several other countries. Spanish authorities are also coordinating with the Netherlands and the ship’s insurer to organise transport for passengers from countries lacking repatriation capacity.
Tedros was also due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid before travelling to the Canary Islands. According to the WHO chief, no new symptomatic cases had been detected on board in recent days, although the organisation said it would continue closely monitoring the situation alongside Spanish authorities.
