{"id":3911,"date":"2026-05-10T16:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:01:43","slug":"spain-readies-for-evacuations-as-a-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship-heads-for-the-canary-islands-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=3911","title":{"rendered":"Spain readies for evacuations as a hantavirus-hit cruise ship heads for the Canary Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Spanish authorities on Friday were preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a\u00a0hantavirus-stricken cruise ship\u00a0headed for the Canary Islands, where health officials have said they will perform careful evacuations.<\/p>

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The vessel is expected to arrive Sunday at the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, and passengers will be taken to a \u201ccompletely isolated, cordoned-off area,\u201d said the head of Spain\u2019s emergency services, Virginia Barcones.<\/p>\n

Both the U.S. and the British government have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are known to be\u00a0infected with hantavirus, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Thursday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the Dutch-flagged ship, the MV Hondius.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger has tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus\u2019s potential transmissibility.<\/p>\n

The flight attendant\u2019s negative result should ease concerns among the public, said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman. \u201cThe risk remains absolutely low,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not a new COVID.\u201d<\/p>

\n<\/div>\n

Hantavirus is usually spread by the\u00a0inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings\u00a0and isn\u2019t easily transmitted between people. But\u00a0the Andes virus\u00a0detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be\u00a0able to spread\u00a0between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.<\/p>\n

Health authorities across four continents were continuing to track down and monitor more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to\u00a0trace others\u00a0who may have come into contact with them since then.<\/p>\n