\u201cWe classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,\u201d says WHO official
\n GRANADILLA DE ABONA
\nA cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak arrived in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands Sunday, where most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home after weeks at sea.
\nThe Dutch-flagged MV Hondius arrived near the Spanish port of Granadilla escorted by a Civil Guard vessel, AFP journalists reported, confirmed by data from the maritime tracking service VesselFinder.
\nPassengers and some of the crew are expected to evacuate before the ship, where an outbreak of hantavirus led to the deaths of three people, continues on its way to the Netherlands.
\nThree passengers from the ship \u2014 a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman \u2014 have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
\nThe only hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person \u2014 the Andes virus \u2014 has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern.
\n\u201cWe classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,\u201d WHO\u2019s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove said Saturday.
\nBut the risk to the general public and the people of the Canaries remained low, she added.
\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who arrived in Spain on Saturday and is expected to oversee the ship evacuation, gave the same assurance and thanked the people of Tenerife for their solidarity.
\n\u201cI need you to hear me clearly,\u201d Tedros wrote in an open letter to the people of Tenerife on Saturday: \u201cThis is not another Covid.\u201d
\nAfter arriving in Tenerife, he said he was confident the operation would be a success. \u201cSpain is ready and prepared,\u201d he told reporters.
\nDaily life uninterrupted
\nAt the port of Granadilla de Abona early Sunday morning, AFP journalists saw white tents had been sent up along the quay and the police had secured part of the port.
\nDespite the situation, daily life appeared largely normal: some people were swimming, others shopping at the market or sitting at cafe terraces.
\n\u201cThere are worries there could be a danger, but honestly I don\u2019t see people being very concerned,\u201d said David Parada, a lottery vendor.
\nRegional authorities have refused to allow the vessel to dock. Instead, it will remain offshore while passengers are screened and evacuated between Sunday and Monday \u2014 the only window health officials say the weather will allow.
\nCruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said earlier that \u201call guests and a limited number of crew members\u201d were expected to begin to leave the ship from around 0700 GMT.
\n\u201cOnce disembarked, they will be transferred immediately to their allocated aircraft,\u201d the Dutch firm said.
\nThe WHO said Friday it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship.
\nThe MV Hondius is sailing from Cape Verde, where three infected people had already been evacuated earlier in the week.
\nTracking and tracing
\nIn Madrid, Spain\u2019s health and interior ministers insisted there would be \u201cno contact\u201d with the local population, and that passengers would leave \u201cby nationality groups\u201d.
\nThe MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.
\nProvincial health official Juan Petrina said there was an \u201calmost zero chance\u201d the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus\u2019s incubation period, among other factors.
\nHealth authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them.
\nA flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said Friday.
\nThe passenger \u2014 the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak \u2014 had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,\u201d says WHO official GRANADILLA DE ABONA A cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak arrived in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands Sunday, where most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home after weeks at sea. The Dutch-flagged MV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-545763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n