Spanish authorities are preparing to evacuate more than 140 passengers and crew from a cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak as it heads toward the Canary Islands, health officials said Friday.
The vessel is expected to arrive near the island of Tenerife, off the northwest coast of Africa, on Saturday or Sunday. Authorities said passengers will be transferred in a strictly controlled and isolated area.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, head of Spain’s emergency services.
Spain is coordinating with multiple governments to arrange evacuation plans for their nationals on board. The United States has agreed to send an aircraft to repatriate 17 American citizens, while the United Kingdom will charter a plane to evacuate nearly two dozen British passengers.
At least three people have died in the outbreak, while several others have fallen ill. The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the general public as low, noting that hantavirus is mainly transmitted through contact with contaminated rodent droppings and is not easily spread between humans.
Health officials said none of the remaining passengers or crew currently show symptoms. The cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, confirmed the situation on Thursday.
However, international health agencies are still tracing passengers who disembarked earlier, including more than two dozen people from at least 12 countries who left the ship without formal contact tracing after an April 24 stop.
Some countries are now tracking potential secondary exposures. UK health authorities on Friday said a third British national is suspected of being infected while on Tristan da Cunha, a remote British territory in the South Atlantic.
Two other British passengers have already tested positive, with one hospitalized in the Netherlands and another in South Africa.
South African authorities are also tracking contacts linked to passengers who left the ship earlier, including travelers who passed through Johannesburg after disembarking in St. Helena.
Officials continue to monitor the situation as evacuation preparations intensify in the Canary Islands.