{"id":34163,"date":"2026-05-10T16:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34163"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:44:31","slug":"spanish-passengers-start-disembarkation-from-ship-hit-by-hantavirus","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/spanish-passengers-start-disembarkation-from-ship-hit-by-hantavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish passengers start disembarkation from ship hit by hantavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Spain said it had begun bringing Spanish \u200cpassengers ashore from the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak which anchored near Tenerife this Sunday, with groups of nationals from other countries to follow.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Spanish nationals were the first to disembark on small boats in groups of five and be taken to shore where they were transferred onto buses and taken to the local airport.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The passengers, who are not \u200bshowing any symptoms of the virus, will board a flight back to Madrid on a Spanish military plane and taken to hospital \u200bto be quarantined, government officials said, emphasising that they will have no contact with members of the public.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The luxury cruise \u2060ship left for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the World Health Organisation (WHO) and European Union asked the country to manage \u200bthe evacuation of passengers after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States (US), UK and the Netherlands \u200bconfirmed on Saturday they had sent planes to evacuate their citizens aboard, though local government officials in the Canaries said not all planes had arrived by Sunday morning.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The WHO said in an update on Friday that eight people no longer on the ship had fallen ill, including three who died &#8211; a Dutch couple and a German \u200bnational; of the eight, six are confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;According \u2060to the information provided by the experts who boarded the ship, the hygiene and environmental conditions are appropriate and they have not detected rodents so transmission by exposure to rodents on board is not likely,&#8221; the report read.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Passengers \u200bwill not leave the boat until their allocated evacuation plane has arrived, Spanish officials said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Passengers from the Netherlands \u200bwill be the next \u2060group to leave the vessel, and their plane will also transport passengers from Germany, Belgium and Greece, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After that, passengers from Turkey, France, the United Kingdom and US will be evacuated, the minister added, speaking to reporters at the port of Tenerife.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The final flight of the operation is \u2060departing from \u200bAustralia. It is the most complex flight and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon,&#8221; Garcia \u200bsaid, adding that the final flight would pick up six people from Australia, New Zealand and other Asian countries.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Thirty crew members will remain on board and sail to the Netherlands where \u200bthe ship will be disinfected.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34120,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34163","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Spanish nationals were the first to disembark on small boats in groups of five.","published_date":"","news_description":"Spanish nationals were the first to disembark on small boats in groups of five","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34164,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34163\/revisions\/34164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}