90-Second Read: Message by the WHO Director-General to the people of Tenerife regarding the Hantavirus response

My name is Tedros, and I serve as the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for global public health. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. On behalf of the World Health Organization, and on behalf of those passengers and their families around the world, I thank the people of Tenerife and everyone else involved. It is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is necessary. 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 virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of Hantavirus. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families. Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now. Right now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board.

The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. The risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. It was made in full accordance with the International Health Regulations, the legally binding framework that defines the rights and obligations of countries and the WHO when responding to public health events of international concern. Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety. I want to speak to you directly, not through press releases or technical briefings, but as one human being to another, because you deserve that.

I want you to know that the WHO's request to Spain was not made arbitrarily. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. This is the WHO's assessment, and we do not make it lightly. And know that the WHO stands with you, and with every person on that ship, every step of the way.