90-Second Read: Spain’s Canary Islands brace for incoming Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship

A cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak is en route to Spain's Canary Islands, where it plans to drop off 140 passengers and crew so they can be evacuated after weeks stranded at sea. While three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected with Hantavirus, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Friday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. The 140 passengers and crew on the MV Hondius will be 'completely isolated' and evacuated, say Spanish authorities. Passengers will be taken to a "completely isolated, cordoned-off area", said the head of Spain's.

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," Tedros wrote on Saturday. Your families will not encounter them." Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was first detected on May 2. This is not a new COVID," said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. Alicia Rodriguez, a bar owner on Tenerife, said the incoming vessel "has been the talk of the town" for days.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius vessel, on which at least eight people fell ill, is due to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, early Sunday morning. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be on the island to help coordinate their evacuation, according to Spanish ministry sources cited by AFP. The WHO considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low. Some Spanish residents expressed concern that the passengers' arrival would create a health risk on the island and that not enough measures were in place to contain it. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment.

Several Spanish passengers told The Associated Press news agency they worry they will be ostracised once on land. We're scared by all the news that's coming out, by how people are going to receive us," said one of the passengers, who declined to give their name. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them. In reality, there are 140 human beings." Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them, Spanish officials said.