Madrid, May 10 World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reassured residents on the Spanish island of Tenerife that the public health risk remained low as the cruise ship MV Hondius approached the Canary Islands following a hantavirus outbreak onboard.
The vessel, carrying 147 people, is expected to arrive between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time Sunday (0300-0500 GMT). Three passengers have died and five others have been confirmed infected since the outbreak emerged after the ship departed from Cape Verde, Xinhua news agency reported.
In an open letter to Canary Islands residents, Tedros acknowledged local concerns but stressed, "This is not another COVID."
"The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low," he said, adding that WHO experts and medical supplies were already onboard the vessel.
"All passengers are asymptomatic," Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said on the night, describing the operation involving 23 countries as "unprecedented."
Spanish authorities said passengers would disembark at the industrial port of Granadilla before being transferred in sealed vehicles directly to airports for repatriation and quarantine in their home countries.
The 14 Spanish passengers aboard will be transferred to military facilities near Madrid before quarantine at Hospital Gomez Ulla.
Meanwhile, a woman hospitalised in Alicante after contact with one of the deceased passengers tested negative for hantavirus on Saturday, according to Spanish health authorities.
Additionally, WHO said that all people aboard a cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak should be considered "high-risk" contacts and actively monitored for 42 days.
"We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told a media briefing. She noted that currently "nobody on board has any symptoms," but recommended "active monitoring and follow-up of all the passengers and crew who disembark for a 42-day period."
However, she stressed that the risk to the public and people in the Canary Islands, where the MV Hondius is expected to dock on Sunday, remains "low."
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