A luxury cruise ship, stranded off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday due to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, was scheduled to sail to Spain on Wednesday after three passengers\u2014two critically ill\u2014were evacuated. <\/p>\n
The MV Hondius<\/a>, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to\u00a0dock in Spain’s Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain’s health minister said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease, News.Az<\/a> reports, citing Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, Monica Garcia told a press conference in Madrid.<\/p>\n Quarantine<\/p>\n The 14 \u200bSpanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid, Garcia said. The duration of the quarantine will depend on when they potentially had contact with\u00a0the virus, \u200bshe said, adding that it has a 45-day incubation period.<\/p>\n Three people\u00a0– a Dutch couple and a German national – have so far died in \u2060the outbreak.<\/p>\n A total of eight people – including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is being treated in Zurich – are suspected to have contracted the virus, with three \u200bof them confirmed by laboratory testing, the World Health Organisation said.<\/p>\n South Africa confirmed that it had identified among the victims the Andean strain of\u00a0the virus\u00a0that can – in rare cases – spread among \u200bhumans through very close contact.<\/p>\n “This is the only (hantavirus) strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and… only happens due to very close contact,” South Africa’s health ministry said.<\/p>\n Three evacuated<\/p>\n WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that the three people evacuated from the ship on Wednesday were on their way to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n The Dutch Foreign Ministry said these people included a Dutch person,\u00a0a German\u00a0and \u200ba Briton and that they would be transported to specialised hospitals in Europe.<\/p>\n Two of those evacuated presented acute symptoms, the ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions said. The third person was closely linked to the German \u200bpassenger who died on the ship on May 2. The Dutch ministry said that person was possibly infected with the virus.<\/p>\n