90-Second Read: Hantavirus-infected ship set to arrive in Canary Islands overnight, WHO promises: 'this is not another COVID'

The Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will not be allowed to dock on the Canary Islands when it approaches the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, Sunday -- the latest twist in a dramatic week-long showdown over the doomed cruise ship. The head of the World Health Organization arrived on the Canary Islands Saturday and attempted to reassure locals petrified about the overnight arrival of the Hantavirus-infected MV Hondius. In January, the country's National Epidemiological Bulletin determined that "with a total of 58 confirmed cases, the country is at the outbreak threshold" for Hantavirus. The agency told doctors in the United States to prepare for potential imported cases of the Hantavirus linked to the rat virus-stricken cruise ship.

The confirmed cases include three passengers airlifted from Cape Verde to the Netherlands on May 6, including 56-year-old British crew member Martin Antsee, who remain in the hospital as of Saturday. Another was a 69-year-old British man, a passenger, who was airlifted from Ascension Island on April 27 to an intensive care unit in Johannesburg, along with his American partner, who is reportedly asymptomatic. Hantavirus, the disease that killed Gene Hackman's wife Betsy Arakawa, is usually spread through rodent droppings, but this strain, the Andes virus, can be spread between people and carries a mortality rate of nearly 40%. From there, passengers are being bussed to the airport, with evacuations to begin within 24 hours of the ship's arrival.

Instead, hazmat-clad health teams will swarm aboard to evaluate the passengers, and some of the 60 crew, who will be transferred, donned in full protective garb, to a cordoned-off section of the port in small boats five people at a time. The vessel was estimated to arrive near the port of Granadilla, on the island of Tenerife, at 5:30 a.m. From there, they are being transported to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, for another screening. Argentina experienced a spike in cases last year, logging 86 infections and 28 deaths in 2025, one of its deadliest tallies in years, with wildfires in Patagonia suspected of pushing rodents closer to towns.

Five other cases have been confirmed by the WHO so far, with more suspected. United Kingdom authorities confirmed Friday that a local on the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, where the ship made its first scheduled stop on April 15, was being treated for a suspected case of the rodent-borne virus. Three people have died, including Dutch ornithologists Leo and Mirjam Schilperoord and a German passenger.