MV Hondius, the cruise where the hantavirus outbreak took place, has docked in Tenerife, and passengers, all of them without symptoms, will be brought back to their countries, where they will stay in quarantine according to their local laws. The luxury cruise ship docked at 6:30 AM local time in Tenerife, despite opposition from the local government of the Canary Islands, in presence of the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who sent a message to the worried local population.
<social>https://x.com/DrTedros/status/2053081095927664774</social>
"I know that when you hear the word "outbreak or epidemic" and see a ship approaching your shores, memories surface that none of us has fully overcome. I need you to listen to me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low."
<social>https://x.com/DrTedros/status/2053373754399490163</social>
Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained what is already public knowledge: this hantavirus strain is not unknown, is the Andes strain, the only one of around 30-40 hantavirus strains transmittable person to person, but only in close and prolonged contact. "The risk to you, in your daily life in Tenerife, is low. "
Three people have died due to hantavirus, which has a high death rate of 40%. But nobody else from the ship has symptomatic passengers, and suspected cases with symptoms from people who were close with the ill have tested negative of the hantavirus, which has similar symptoms as the flu. The passengers, around 150 from 23 countries, are being transported right now from the ship to an airport in sealed and guarded vehicles through a cordoned corridor.