Hantavirus-hit cruise ship reaches Spanish island

The cruise ship Hondius, which was hit by a deadly outbreak of hantavirus, reached the Spanish island of Tenerife early on Sunday, live footage from Spanish public broadcaster RTVE showed.
Medical staff are to first examine the people on board the ship at the port of Granadilla for acute symptoms of illness, the Spanish authorities said. If none are found, the passengers will disembark in groups of no more than five. 
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said they must wear FFP2 face masks and are only allowed to take light hand luggage with them.
They will then be taken by bus under strict safety precautions to the nearby airport where they are to board aircraft provided by their home countries without further check-in procedures.
Return flights are planned for Sunday and Monday, according to the WHO, before bad weather is expected to move in.
Those flown out are expected to go into quarantine after arrival, as an all-clear can only be given after weeks because of the virus's long incubation period.
Passengers and crew from 23 countries are aboard the Hondius. Three passengers died during the outbreak. 
There are currently no passengers with symptoms aboard the ship, according to the WHO.
García, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus travelled to the island to oversee the complex operation.WHO: Risk is low
WHO head Tedros assured the people of Tenerife that the public health risk from hantavirus was low, emphasizing that the outbreak was not comparable to the coronavirus pandemic.
'This is not another COVID,' he said on Saturday in a message addressed to the people of Tenerife.
Once disembarkation is complete, the Dutch-flagged Hondius is expected to continue to the Netherlands where it is to be disinfected. The body of a German woman who died during the cruise is to remain aboard. 
In an update late on Friday evening, the WHO said there had been six confirmed and two suspected cases of hantavirus. In three of the eight, the patient had died - an elderly Dutch couple and a German woman.Outbreak causes wide concern
The outbreak of the South American Andes variant of the virus on the small cruise ship sparked global concern, with memories of the coronavirus pandemic still fresh. 
The Hondius began its voyage in Argentina in April, anchored at Cape Verde then departed for the Canary Islands on Wednesday evening.
As more than 30 passengers and crew members disembarked during the ship’s stopovers, officials worldwide are searching for potential suspected cases.
The hantavirus is usually transmitted by rodents, but can also spread from person to person through close contact. 
In the Canary Islands in particular, people have expressed fear of possible infection with the potentially deadly virus.
But this situation differs from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, health authorities have underlined. Even if the Andes virus were to be transmitted by passengers from the ship, the virus would not be easily transmissible, said European health authority ECDC, 'so it is unlikely that there would be many cases of infection or a widespread outbreak among the general population”. 
The risk to the general population in the EU from the spread of the Andes virus is 'very low,” the authority said.Spanish health system tipped the balance
The WHO asked Spain to let the passengers disembark in the Canary Islands as the first potential destination on the ship’s route with first-class health-care facilities. 
Cape Verde, where the Hondius last anchored, was reluctant to take the passengers on board, pointing to inadequate health-care facilities.
The Hondius began its voyage across the South Atlantic on April 1 in Ushuaia in southern Argentina. 
Ten days later, a Dutch man died. His wife disembarked during a stopover on St Helena and flew to South Africa on April 24, where she died in hospital soon afterwards. 
The ship’s operator, Oceanwide, said the German woman died on May 3.
The WHO suspects that the chain of infection originated with the deceased Dutch couple, who may have contracted the virus whilst ashore in Argentina before boarding the ship.