WHO seeks to reassure people where hantavirus ship is headed

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World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on Spain’s Tenerife on Saturday to reassure residents about a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship expected to bring more than 140 passengers and crew to the island early Sunday. In a direct message to Tenerife residents, Tedros said the public health risk from hantavirus remains low as the ship approaches, emphasizing the comparisons people may be making to COVID-19 after the trauma of 2020.

Tedros acknowledged residents’ worries in a statement delivered to the people of Tenerife, saying: “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. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment.” He then added that the current risk profile is different, telling residents: “But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.”

Tedros said the WHO has made the assessment directly and repeatedly, telling residents: “My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.” The message came as Tedros coordinated with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska to manage the disembarkation plan for the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius.

Garcia said passengers and some crew would be handled in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.” She said the ship would not dock and would instead remain at anchor, with people ferried off in small boats, and with disembarkation contingent on symptom checks. She also said people would not be taken off the ship until an evacuation flight already in Tenerife was prepared for them.

In a briefing Saturday, Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said authorities are aiming to complete evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday. Garcia said Americans and Britons would be evacuated using planes agreed to by their governments, and that Americans would be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

Not all residents on Tenerife welcomed the planned arrival. Seventy-year-old resident Simon Vidal said he did not want the ship brought to the Canary Islands, asking why the vessel had to come from another country and why it could not be sent “anywhere else.” Others said they felt concern but urged empathy toward passengers who may be stigmatized.

Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero, 27, said she believed the situation is “very worrying” and that residents “feel a bit unsafe,” adding: “We feel as there are 100% 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.” The AP reported that some Spanish passengers on board voiced worries about being stigmatized.

According to Spain’s plan, all Spanish passengers would be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said, and Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board. Garcia said those disembarking would leave their luggage behind and be allowed to bring only a small bag with essential items including a cellphone, charger and documentation, while some crew members and the body of a passenger who died on board would remain on the ship.

Garcia said the remaining ship would then sail to the Netherlands for disinfection, and that a medical evacuation plane would be on standby. The AP reported that a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday said Spain had activated the EU civil protection mechanism for an infectious-disease-equipped medical evacuation plane to be ready if anyone on the ship becomes ill and needs transport to the European mainland.

Authorities have also been working to track people who left the ship before the outbreak was detected. The AP reported that more than two dozen passengers who left the Hondius before health authorities confirmed hantavirus in a passenger have been monitored and that officials also sought to trace others who may have come into contact with them.