Virus-hit cruise ship evacuees head to Spain, Netherlands

PRAIA, (Cape Verde): A plane that left Cape Verde following the evacuation of a cruise ship hit by the hantavirus landed in Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday, while a second flight headed for the Netherlands.

Downplaying fears over the deadly outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted it was not comparable to the Covid pandemic.

As the WHO said emergency crews had evacuated three people from the ship, experts confirmed the version of the virus detected aboard Hondius is a rare strain that can be transmitted between humans. Two sick crew members and another person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases were taken from the ship, which is currently moored off Cape Verde, the WHO said.

They later boarded flights at the airport in Cape Verde’s capital Praia.

Plane tracker FlightRadar24 indicated one had taken off bound for Amsterdam, where it was due to land at 1730 GMT.

The other flight, a medical transport plane, landed at Las Palmas in Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday afternoon, an AFP journalist there saw.

Health officials played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the virus, which is less contagious than Covid.

UN health agency chief Tedros told AFP it was not like the Covid-19 pandemic, adding: “The risk to the rest of the world is low.”