Passengers are evacuated from cruise ship tied to hantavirus outbreak.

By CARLOS BARRAGÁN, AMELIA NIERENBERG and LYNSEY CHUTEL

Passengers and crew from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak were evacuated Sunday after the vessel anchored off Spain’s Canary Islands. Global health officials have sought to calm fears about the passengers’ return to their home countries by vowing to closely monitor any signs of disease.

The ship, the MV Hondius, arrived at the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, the largest of the islands, on Sunday morning, one month after a person died on board.

Mónica García, Spain’s health minister, told reporters in Tenerife that everyone on the ship was without symptoms. Health officials boarded the vessel to conduct an epidemiological evaluation, including assessing temperatures and symptoms, but they did not test anyone, she said.

Passengers and crew members began disembarking in small groups later Sunday, wearing masks and blue personal protective equipment. Many carried what appeared to be white plastic bags. People were allowed to take only essential items, including a cellphone and documentation, Spanish authorities said.

The Spanish authorities said evacuations on chartered or military flights were expected to continue through Monday evening. García said at midday Sunday that 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member had boarded a flight to Madrid and that five French citizens were taken to the airport after disembarking.

There were about 150 people aboard the ship when it arrived at the Canary Islands, including crew members, passengers and four medical staff members who boarded the vessel when it was anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, an island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.

The World Health Organization has said that the risk of the outbreak to the general public is low. As the ship neared the Canary Islands on Saturday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the organization, moved to allay residents’ concerns about the hantavirus, which has rekindled anxieties from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” he said in a statement addressed to Tenerife, after the leader of the regional government of the Canary Islands tried to block the arrival because of fears about disease.

“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID,” Tedros added.

The Spanish government forced the anchoring in the archipelago, overriding a last-minute veto by the regional leader, who had argued that the central government had not provided enough information to guarantee the health of residents.

Since April 11, three passengers have died and five other people have fallen ill after showing symptoms of hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents, according to the WHO. Although human-to-human transmission of the hantavirus is rare, WHO officials said that the strain that had infected patients from the ship, called the Andes strain, was the only one known to spread among humans.

The pathogen had been confirmed in six people, the WHO said, including two of the dead. Two other people were “probable cases,” the organization said.

Global health officials were taking steps to stop it from spreading, but predicted a “limited” outbreak if public health measures were enacted.

In Tenerife, the ship anchored offshore in an industrial port. People were being taken ashore in small boats and then led to an airport, from where they were expected to be sent to their home countries, Spanish officials said.

“This unprecedented operation is going as planned,” García said around midday Sunday.

García said citizens of countries including Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, Turkey, Ireland and the United States were set to disembark Sunday. The remaining passengers will be evacuated Monday on planes sent by Australia and the Netherlands, she said.

The body of one of the three deceased passengers will remain on the ship, she added.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operator, said Sunday that once all guests and some of the crew have disembarked, the ship “will bunker and take on necessary supplies” in Tenerife before transiting to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, which was expected to take around five days. The ship will be disinfected there, Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Saturday.

Countries were scrambling to trace people who may have been exposed to the virus and were monitoring people who were on the ship or had contact with sickened passengers.

“We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said Saturday.

The WHO recommended a 42-day period of “active monitoring and follow-up” for everyone who disembarked.

Five French citizens arrived home Sunday evening, but one of them developed symptoms during the flight, Sébastien Lecornu, France’s prime minister, said on the social platform X.

Lecornu said that the five passengers were immediately placed in strict isolation, and that they will undergo more testing and a health assessment.