The ship arrived off the Canary Islands after weeks at sea at the center of an international public health response triggered by a hantavirus outbreak that has claimed three lives.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is leading a team in Tenerife, stressed that the risk to the wider public remains low.
“This is not another COVID,” he told reporters during a media briefing on Sunday, adding that “the risk to the public is low” and that people “shouldn’t be afraid and they shouldn’t panic.”
There have been eight cases linked to the ship, six of which have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections as of Friday, with all identified as Andes virus (ANDV), although no new deaths had been recorded since May 2.
Click here for the WHO fact sheet on hantavirus
Landing operation
The disembarkation operation began early in the morning, with Spanish health authorities boarding the ship to assess passengers and crew before transferring them ashore in stages based on nationality and flight availability.
According to the WHO’s head of health operations in Tenerife, Diana Rojas Alvarez, passengers and crew from Spain, France, Canada and the Netherlands were among the first groups to leave the vessel.
“It has been extremely intense, but also very well organized,” she said during a WHO media briefing.
About 46 passengers and crew were expected to disembark on Sunday and operations were expected to continue until Monday. Around 30 crew members are expected to remain on board when the vessel returns to the Netherlands accompanied by a medical team.
Repatriation flights
WHO officials said none of the passengers would be traveling on commercial flights. Instead, chartered repatriation flights are coordinated with national authorities under strict health protocols.
Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic management, said passengers and crew would undergo active health surveillance for up to six weeks because of the virus’s incubation period.
“Our recommendation is active follow-up, which means daily monitoring, checking for fever or other symptoms,” she said, adding that the WHO recommends either home or facility-based quarantine and monitoring for 42 days.
“This is really a cautious approach to ensure that we have no chance of this virus being transmitted from others. We’ve also recommended when they get off the boat and when they’re around others that they wear respirators, for that extra layer of protection.”
Hantavirus disease
Hantavirus is a rare disease that is usually associated with exposure to infected rodents and can cause severe respiratory disease. The Andean strain linked to the outbreak is the only known hantavirus strain with documented human-to-human transmission, although the WHO has said the risk of infection remains low.
The agency said the operation in Tenerife involved close coordination between Spain, the Netherlands, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO teams on the ground.
“This is what the WHO does,” said Dr. van Kerkhove, noting that the agency routinely coordinates international responses to infectious disease threats, even when public attention is limited.
