The director-general of the World Health Organization arrived in Spain on Saturday to prepare for the disembarkation of passengers from a cruise ship amid a hantavirus outbreak.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that he is in direct communication with MV Hondius cruise captain Jan Dobrogowski and WHO expert Dr. Freddy Banza-Mutoka, who said no one on board the ship is showing symptoms of hantavirus. U.S. health officials also confirmed there are no symptomatic people on the ship.
In a message to the people of Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, Ghebreyesus acknowledged that people are scared about the hantavirus, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID,” he said. “The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.”
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MV Hondius is expected to arrive in Tenerife early Sunday morning. Passengers will be ferried ashore at Granadilla, away from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles through a completely cordoned-off corridor before being taken directly to their home countries, Ghebreyesus said.
“You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them,” Ghebreyesus told the people of Tenerife.
Around 147 people were on the cruise ship when the outbreak was first reported to the WHO earlier this month, and 34 previously disembarked. Three passengers died, with a total of eight cases of the hantavirus reported on the ship as of Friday.
Spain’s interior minister said on Saturday Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands are sending planes to evacuate their citizens on the cruise ship upon their arrival, Reuters reported. Two additional planes are being sent by the European Union for the rest of the European citizens.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking 17 U.S. citizens on board the ship and seven who previously returned to the U.S., an official from the CDC told reporters on a call Saturday.
The American cruise passengers will be taken to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska to be assessed before returning to their home states. It is the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement. “Our teams have trained for decades alongside federal and state partners to make sure we can safely provide care while protecting our staff and the broader community. We are proud to support this national effort.”
Passengers can expect an overall monitoring period of 42 days, the CDC official said, though this will “not necessarily” all take place in Nebraska.
“We will continue to assess and monitor the passengers. We’re coordinating with state and local health departments as well,” the CDC official said.
Exposed passengers are recommended to limit activities outside the house that involve “extensive interactions with other people,” the CDC official added.
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In the call with reporters, the CDC official said they hope that the passengers will only be in Nebraska for a “limited amount of time.”
He said the CDC is “not quarantining anybody.”
“What we’re doing is assessing and monitoring the passengers, but we’re also doing coordination with the passengers and also with the jurisdiction where they ultimately will go,” the CDC official said.