{"id":420180,"date":"2026-05-10T00:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/420180\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T00:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:40:08","slug":"canary-islands-brace-for-arrival-of-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/420180\/","title":{"rendered":"Canary Islands brace for arrival of hantavirus-hit cruise ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">A cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard is headed for Spain\u2019s Canary Islands, where most of the nearly 150 people on board will be evacuated and flown home after weeks at sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius is expected to reach waters off Tenerife at dawn local time on Sunday, where World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is due to help co-ordinate the ship\u2019s evacuation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Three passengers from the ship &#8211; a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman &#8211; have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The only hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person &#8211; the Andes virus &#8211; has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/nzme.co.nz\/advertise\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The United Nations health agency\u2019s spokeswoman Maria Van Kerkhove said \u201cwe classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact\u201d but added that the risk to the general public and the people of the Canaries remained low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">At the port of Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, AFP journalists saw that white tents had been sent up along the quay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Despite the situation, daily life appeared largely normal: some people were swimming, others shopping at the market or sitting at cafe terraces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Regional authorities have refused to allow the vessel to dock. Instead, it will remain offshore while passengers are screened and evacuated between Sunday and Monday &#8211; the only window health officials say the weather will allow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The WHO said that it had confirmed six cases out of eight suspected ones. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8211; AFP<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"flex cursor-pointer items-center gap-1.5 text-black\" data-test-ui=\"social-link--bookmark-below\" aria-label=\"bookmark\" id=\"social-link--bookmark-below\">Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard is headed for Spain\u2019s Canary Islands, where most of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[44096,74,9869,2372,12412,215762,2037,6659,40488,75102,2082,167238,215763,46662,134,1345,3096,3025,11692,111,139,69,1118,17976,384,3008,17093,33171,4518,540,1533,102],"class_list":["post-420180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-aboard","tag-after","tag-arrival","tag-board","tag-brace","tag-canary","tag-cruise","tag-deadly","tag-evacuated","tag-flown","tag-for","tag-hantavirus","tag-hantavirushit","tag-headed","tag-health","tag-home","tag-islands","tag-most","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-outbreak","tag-people","tag-sea","tag-ship","tag-spains","tag-weeks","tag-where","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}