{"id":948580,"date":"2026-05-09T15:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948580\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:45:15","slug":"eu-countries-prepare-repatriation-of-hantavirus-cruise-passengers-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948580\/","title":{"rendered":"EU countries prepare repatriation of hantavirus cruise passengers \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hantavirus is a disease typically spread by infected rats. As of Friday, there were a total of six confirmed cases of a hantavirus variant \u2014 named the &#8220;Andes&#8221; subtype \u2014 linked to the cruise ship and two probable cases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/disease-outbreak-news\/item\/2026-DON600#:~:text=As%20of%208%20May%2C%20a%20total%20of%20eight%20cases%20(six,reaction%20(PCR)%20or%20sequencing.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to<\/a> the World Health Organization (WHO). The Andes subtype is the only variant known to spread among humans.<\/p>\n<p>The WHO has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eu-plan-hantavirus-response-who-calms-outbreak-fears\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sought to<\/a> calm fears that the outbreak could trigger a global health emergency on the scale of Covid-19. The Spanish government&#8217;s plans to let the cruise ship, the MV Hondius, arrive in Tenerife have provoked controversy, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/canary-islands-fernando-clavijo-hantavirus-cruise-ship-mv-hondius-tenerife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">among Canary Islands<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/canary-islands-fernando-clavijo-hantavirus-cruise-ship-mv-hondius-tenerife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The ship will anchor off Tenerife without docking. Passengers will then be ferried to the industrial port of Granadilla and transported in &#8220;sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor&#8221; before being repatriated directly to their home countries, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/09-05-2026-message-by-the-who-director-general-to-the-people-of-tenerife-regarding-the-hantavirus-response\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to<\/a> WHO Director General\u00a0Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n<p>Ghebreyesus\u00a0is set to travel to Tenerife with Spain\u2019s interior and health ministers to coordinate the arrival of the cruise ship. Ghebreyesus addressed the people of Tenerife <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DrTedros\/status\/2053083645292773817?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">directly via social media<\/a> on Saturday, acknowledging their fears while stressing that &#8220;this is not another Covid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,&#8221; Ghebreyesus said.<\/p>\n<p>Ghebreyesus intends to &#8220;stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making [the operation] happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hantavirus is a disease typically spread by infected rats. As of Friday, there were a total of six&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1789,2000,299,5187,2816,1699,36,1824,81183,678,2452,7697,1093,182,104,47982,108956,3053,1263,15,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-948580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-politics","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-global-health","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-media","19":"tag-ports","20":"tag-public-health","21":"tag-social-media","22":"tag-spain","23":"tag-spanish-politics","24":"tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","25":"tag-the-netherlands","26":"tag-transport","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116545396844015338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}