WHO chief reassures ‘worried’ Tenerife residents ahead of hantavirus ship arrival expected Sunday

By Adam Cancryn, Brenda Goodman, Jennifer Hansler, Deidre McPhillips, Christian Edwards, CNN

(CNN) — The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has sought to reassure the concerned residents of Tenerife ahead of the arrival of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship early Sunday morning.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a letter to the residents of the Spanish island on Saturday, said he understands that many are “worried” about the arrival of the MV Hondius, on which three passengers have died after contracting the disease.

But the WHO chief stressed that the hantavirus outbreak – which is typically spread through contact with rodent droppings – is “not another Covid-19.”

“The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,” he said, adding that WHO did not make that assessment “lightly.”

Tedros said that Spanish authorities had prepared a “careful, step-by step plan” for when the ship arrives at Granadilla early Sunday. Passengers will be ferried ashore and travel in “sealed, guarded vehicles,” and kept away from residential areas before they are repatriated directly to their home countries.

“You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them,” he said.

The operation to disembark the passengers from MV Hondius will commence once the sun rises, Spain’s Civil Defense said Friday.

Tedros thanked Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for agreeing to receive the ship, calling the decision “an act of solidarity and moral duty.” He said Tenerife had been chosen to receive the ship because it has the infrastructure and medical capacity to help the passengers “reach safety.”

The WHO chief added that he is planning to travel to Tenerife to observe the operation and to pay his respects to the island that has responded “gracefully” to the “difficult situation.”

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is dispatching epidemiologists and medical profesionals to meet the ship when it arrives at the Spanish archipelago, where they’ll conduct a risk assessment for each American passenger, the agency said Friday.

An official at the US Department of Health and Human Services said Saturday that the current assessment is that the risk to the broader American public remains “extremely low.” The official said that the outbreak involves the Andes variant of the hantavirus, with which the CDC has “deep expertise.”

One source familiar with the matter told CNN that the Americans will be brought back aboard a charter aircraft with a biocontainment unit, similar to those used during Covid-19 evacuations.

The ship will anchor at a distance from the dock inside the Spanish port at a location determined by maritime and port authorities as “the safest” for the operation to take place, Spain’s Secretary General for Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, said Friday. The passengers will then disembark according to their nationalities in small inflatable boats.

Once passengers are allowed to leave the boat in the Canary Islands, 14 Spanish passengers will be transported to a military hospital after being examined, while the other remaining passengers will be repatriated, according to Spain’s health minister, Mónica García.

At the military hospital, passengers will remain in individual rooms, will not be allowed visitors and will be given a PCR test upon arrival and another after seven days, Spain’s Ministry of Health said Friday.

“In addition, active monitoring will be carried out, which includes recording their temperature twice a day to promptly detect any compatible symptoms,” the ministry said in a statement.

The boat’s arrival has caused tensions in Spain, with Fernando Clavijo, the leader of the Canary Islands, saying earlier in the week that he was opposed to the ship docking there. On Friday, port workers in Tenerife held protests, voicing their concerns about a lack of communication about the potential risks.

Worsening weather

Local authorities have warned that the evacuation of the ship must happen swiftly due to concerns about bad weather. Manuel Domínguez, vice president of the regional government of the Canary Islands, warned that passengers will likely need to disembark the ship before Tuesday, when the weather is expected to worsen.

Weather conditions are expected to be pleasant in Tenerife this weekend but will worsen early next week with choppier waves and stronger gusts of wind, according to CNN’s Weather Team.

In Friday’s meeting, the regional government of the Canary Islands also suggested to the Dutch delegation that the ship should continue to the Netherlands after the disembarkation of passengers, with the same crew, Domínguez said.

Domínguez added that disinfection should be carried out in the Netherlands.

US passengers to head to Nebraska

Another CDC team has been dispatched to meet returning American passengers in Nebraska, the agency said. At a briefing Saturday, a CDC official said that the 17 US passengers – none of which have symptoms – will be transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which is home to the the National Quarantine Unit, a federally funded facility.

After briefly being assessed at the unit, the passengers will then be able to undergo home-based monitoring over the next 42 days, the official said, with monitoring expected to be at least daily.

“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.”

The US State Department is arranging the repatriation flight in coordination with the CDC, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the government of Spain, a State Department spokesperson confirmed.

The department is “in direct communication with Americans on board and are prepared to provide consular assistance as soon as the ship arrives in Tenerife, Spain,” the State Department spokesperson said.

The Trump administration was expected to publicly detail its plan as early as Friday, one of the people familiar with the matter said, though they cautioned that the timing remained fluid.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Donald Trump on Thursday indicated that the administration would soon release more information on its work to contain the disease, telling reporters that it is “very much, we hope, under control.”

Five states — Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia — are already monitoring seven passengers who previously disembarked from the ship. Health officials told CNN that none is experiencing symptoms. New Jersey also said it is monitoring two people who were potentially exposed to a person infected with hantavirus after departing MV Hondius. They are not experiencing hantavirus symptoms.

The outbreak was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2 and remains a low risk to the general public, WHO says.

Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died since the vessel departed Argentina last month, while others have been evacuated from the ship for medical treatment.

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CNN’s Billy Stockwell, Pau Mosquera, Brandon Miller, Sol Amaya and Vasco Cotovio in Tenerife contributed reporting.