Passengers and crew from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak were evacuated on Sunday after the vessel anchored off Spain\u2019s Canary Islands. Global health officials have sought to calm fears about the passengers\u2019 return to their home countries by vowing to closely monitor any signs of disease.<\/p>\n
The ship, the MV Hondius, arrived at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, the largest of the islands, early on Sunday morning, one month after a person died on board.<\/p>\n
M\u00f3nica Garc\u00eda, Spain\u2019s health minister, told reporters in Tenerife that everyone on the ship was asymptomatic.<\/p>\n
Health officials boarded the vessel to conduct an epidemiological evaluation, including assessing temperatures and symptoms, but they did not test anyone, she said.<\/p>\n
Passengers and crew members began disembarking in small groups on Sunday, wearing masks and blue personal protective equipment. Many carried what appeared to be white plastic bags. People were allowed to take only essential items, including a cellphone and documentation, Spanish authorities said.<\/p>\n
The Spanish authorities said evacuations on chartered or military flights were expected to continue through Monday evening.<\/p>\n
Ms. Garc\u00eda said at midday on Sunday that 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member had boarded a flight to Madrid and that five French citizens were taken to the airport after disembarking.<\/p>\n
Ms. Garc\u00eda said all planes scheduled for Sunday had departed for their destinations. \u201cIt is a source of pride to be part of a country that has carried out this operation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Five French citizens arrived home on Sunday evening, but one of them developed symptoms during the flight, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, France\u2019s prime minister, said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Lecornu said that the five passengers were immediately placed in strict isolation, and that they will undergo more testing and a health assessment.<\/p>\n In a statement on Sunday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the American citizens aboard the ship would be transported to the Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center\/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Neb.<\/p>\n The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday that though the center has a quarantine unit, passengers would not be quarantined, but would instead be monitored and assessed for a period of 42 days, in some cases at their homes, in coordination with local jurisdictions and other government agencies.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear how many U.S. passengers might remain at the center in Nebraska and how many would be sent home to be monitored.<\/p>\n There were about 150 people aboard the ship when it arrived at the Canary Islands, including crew members, passengers and four medical staff members who boarded the vessel when it was anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, an island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n The World Health Organization has said that the risk of the outbreak to the public is low<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the ship neared the Canary Islands on Saturday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the organization, moved to allay residents\u2019 concerns about the hantavirus, which has rekindled anxieties<\/a> from the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that when you hear the word \u2018outbreak\u2019 and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,\u201d he said in a statement addressed to Tenerife, after the leader of the regional government of the Canary Islands tried to block the arrival because of fears about disease.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another Covid,\u201d Dr. Tedros added.<\/p>\n Since April 11, three passengers have died and five other people have fallen ill after showing symptoms of hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents, according to the W.H.O.<\/p>\n Although human-to-human transmission of the hantavirus<\/a> is rare, W.H.O. officials said the strain that had infected patients from the ship, called the Andes<\/a> strain, was the only one known to spread among humans.<\/p>\n The pathogen had been confirmed in six people, the W.H.O. said, including two of the dead. Two other people were \u201cprobable cases,\u201d the organization said.<\/p>\n Global health officials were taking steps to stop the virus from spreading, but predicted a \u201climited\u201d outbreak<\/a> if public health measures were enacted.<\/p>\n